


Space Cowboys

by luxshine



Category: Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Popslash
Genre: Aliens, F/M, Future Fic, M/M, Space AU, sci fi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-04-05
Updated: 2012-07-04
Packaged: 2017-10-17 15:03:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 98,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/178109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxshine/pseuds/luxshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starship Captain Richardson finds himself and his crew in a dire predicament.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Uneasy Alliances

**Author's Note:**

> I blame, equally, the Larger than Life video and Space Cowboy for this fic. You have been warned. Also, this will be long. I have no idea of how long, since the smallish ‘this is a ficlet’ idea has turned into an epic so… long WIP warning. On other notes. Many thanks to milosflaca as always, for her insight and her first draft betaing that should be called an art because of all she writes in the printouts. Seriously, girl, you’re the best. To bellamyrose who did the first grammar polishing of the story, and to otherdeb who did the second and didn’t let me forget where the periods and the commas were supposed to go. Also, many thanks to musiclover03 who helped me put some ideas in order in our nightly chats.

Captain Kevin Richardson opened his eyes, groaning. At first, he didn’t know where he was, so he got to his feet, trying to assess of his situation. His head was throbbing, and he could feel a sore spot on the back of his skull where he had hit the floor.

As he looked around, the memories started flooding through his mind. He was Starfleet Alliance Captain Kevin Richardson of the ESS Millennium, cargo starcruiser serial number 01999-BSB-3. He was on a permanent post to the Andromeda Chain route 345-b, carrying supplies for the troops stationed at the edge of the Chain. His mission was important, since those troops were defending Allied space from the aliens designated by the Earth Government as the “Space Cowboys”, who had been at war against mankind for more than seventy years.

The Millennium had been attacked by rebel pirates - humans who didn’t support the war and raided and destroyed military ships for their own gain - the second most dangerous enemies that Kevin could meet. He had defended his ship with the help of the ship’s Nano Intelligent Cargo Keeper’s battledrones but in the end, they had been severely outnumbered.

Kevin closed his eyes, sighing. He hadn’t died in the attack, which was a good thing, but he didn’t know how he had managed to survive. His last clear memory was seeing the pirates get attacked by another crew. A group that wasn’t displaying the Alliance Banner and whose battleships didn’t look like anything made by human hands.

“A.J., I need a report of the damages, now,” he said looking around the darkened bridge, hoping that the ship mainframe wasn’t damaged. It would take a lot to affect the A.I., but since the last time Kevin had reached a spaceport, the machine had developed some serious glitches and if one of them decided to flare up, Kevin knew he would be screwed.

“I have good news and bad news, captain.” The holographic form of the ship’s A.I. materialized next to the command console. Kevin looked at it and sighed, resigned. It was obviously a bad day for the A.I, who had foregone its usual military look, for the more informal broken one. Instead of the blue bodysuit that the A.I. normally simulated, now it was wearing a half cut black shirt whose sleeves looked like as if they were made with chainmail. The A.I.’s human form was also sporting body art, a strange circular symbol that looked like a six and a nine merged together around his bellybutton, and Kevin was sure there would be more under the chainmail sleeve if the A.I. decided to go with its arms naked. The A.I. had topped his look this time by creating blonde and red highlights in its - usually - black hair. A pair of dark glasses completed the ensemble. When the AI looked like that, when it spoke to Kevin with sarcasm and jokes, Kevin knew he was going to have a hard day ahead. Nothing he did seemed to be able to fix the subprogram that had created this annoying side personality of the Millennium’s mainframe and Astrophysical Engine. “We were absorbed by the wormhole you tried to avoid unsuccessfully. The ship sustained no physical damage when we passed through it, but it seems to have eaten our reserve energy. We’re working with the third generator on emergency rations.”

“Is that the report of the Bio Redundant Operating Cargo Keeper or your own assessment?” Kevin asked, sitting down on his control command. Sure enough, all the lights except the ones for life support were turned off.

“B.R.O.C.K. is doing a maintenance sweep as we speak, Captain, but he was the one who reported the energy loss.”

“How long before the solar cells are recharged?” Kevin sat on the command chair, rubbing his head. He could feel a bruise forming.

“At least 24 hours, captain.”

“Continue the report,” Kevin said. There was nothing much to do without energy.

“N.I.C.K. informed me he lost four drones during the battle, sir.”

“Is one of the lost drones the defective one?” Kevin asked, looking at the open space again. Without the light from his console, it looked darker than ever. Still, he hoped for an affirmative answer. A defective drone only helped to spend energy.

“The defective drone, as you call him captain, is safe.” There was no mistaking A.J’s tone. The A.I. was not happy with Kevin. But Kevin was used to that too. Between A.J.’s glitches, the defective drone accidentally created by the B.R.O.C.K. and the N.I.C.K. and the way in which he kept getting attacked in the merchant route, it was a wonder the Earth Space Alliance had let him keep command of the ESS Millennium for so long.

“Finish your report, A.J.” Kevin sighed. Now he remembered what had happened. The new arrivals to the battle had attacked the pirates, saving Kevin and the Millennium. The pirates escaped without many losses, and as Kevin started to maneuver the Millennium back to its normal course, a worm hole had started to open. Kevin remembered trying to get the Millennium away from it on time, seeing his impromptu saviors do the same in their strange, single pilot ships, a sharp pain on the back of his head, and waking up on the floor of the bridge. As his headache was receding he knew that there was something about that other crew that he was forgetting.

The situation was definitively one of the worst possible things to report in his log.

“There are two million star maps downloaded in my memory,” AJ said, and to make his point he lowered his dark glasses. If the A.I. had been human, it would’ve looked condescending. As it wasn’t, to Kevin it looked ridiculous. “None of the systems that surround us match those maps. I can’t triangulate our position.”

“We are lost,” Kevin clarified, closing his eyes. That was the worst nightmare possible for a commander in the Space Corps. Being lost in space meant losses for the Alliance. Unacceptable losses when the Alliance was at war.

“And we’re not alone,” AJ finished. Kevin thought that he could hear a note of smugness in the A.I.’s voice, just as he felt his own stomach drop. Now Kevin remembered that little detail that had escaped his notice. His saviors, the ones who had also been swallowed by the worm hole, had been riding the space cowboys’ preferred type of battleship. A strange vessel that looked like a mix between an earth bull and a motorcycle, and by all appearances, permitted its driver to travel through space with minimal protection. “The crew that came to our rescue was also swallowed by the wormhole, and one of their number was hurt. They are waiting for us at the locking port. I have no information of their mother ship’s whereabouts.”

“Wait. Repeat that to me, slowly. You are telling me that you allowed enemies into the ship without my permission?” Kevin rose from his seat, glaring at the A.I. He could deal with the A.I. developing a personality. After so many years together, Kevin could even say it was a welcome change. He could deal with the anomalies of the maintenance units. He could even deal with the Corps ordering him to take an experimental unit as the Medical officer for the Millennium, like the S.W.E.E.T. But if the A.I. was starting to make decisions *over* the authority of the Captain, Kevin was getting it formatted as soon as they were back in known space. He would even write it down physically so the A.I. couldn’t erase the order in case something happened to Kevin. Especially since, as far as Kevin knew, the riders were the enemy with whom the Alliance had been at war for so long.

“Space Corps Regulations indicate that in case of a shipwreck, the closest available ship must perform rescue missions. Their ship was not swallowed by the worm hole, only their individual spacecrafts. In those conditions, they would not survive. I scanned their bodies, and I can assure you they are human. Which means that I acted in the way that you would’ve acted, following Space Regulation NSA-2034-456, Captain.”

Kevin groaned. It was the second time A.J. decided to pick up a stray in five years, only that this time, the stray was sentient. He only hoped that the other humans had a better idea of where the hell they were.

* * *

Whatever his ship’s mainframe said, Kevin couldn’t believe that the sentients surrounded by the ship’s battle drones at the Millennium docking port were human, especially not now that he was seeing them. They looked humanoid, true, but it was hard to say when they were wearing full body armor that covered every inch of their skin and hair. Kevin couldn’t even determine if it was possible for them to see through their helmets, as they were pitch black.

Two of them had their weapons drawn, pointing to the nearest battle drone they could find. Kevin tried to suppress the tired sigh that the sight of the battle drones always caused him. Officially, battle drones had to look exactly like the mother unit. The Millennium battle drones, however, tended to be very different. It had been at least five years since N.I.C.K. had started malfunctioning and his drones were of every race and gender one could picture. It almost looked like a human crew.

Between the two sentients who were obviously ready to defend their mates if the battle drones became hostile, there was a third, tall and lean sentient, carrying a fourth on his arms. The hurt one, Kevin assumed. The fifth one was, at first sight, the shortest of the group, and even when it didn’t had a weapon on his hands, it looked ready to attack if there was any danger to their group.

“Welcome to the ESS Millennium,” Kevin said, following protocol. If his ship said the strangers were human, he was going to treat them as such. “You can lower your weapons, I mean no harm. I am Captain Kevin Richardson, of the Allied Starfleet.”

The biggest of the group, one of the ones who had its weapon drawn, muttered something unintelligible to the shortest one, who seemed to be the leader. The short one nodded, and raised its hand to touch two points on its shoulder blades.

To Kevin’s surprise, the being’s helmet folded into itself as if it was a piece of cloth, turning into a sort of turtleneck around its neck. It was then when Kevin realized that AJ had more glitches than he had thought because it was impossible that the sentient before him was human.

The creature before him had long purpleish hair, fashioned in long dreadlocks fixed in a really high ponytail that made the dreadlocks frame its delicate facial features. Most of the dreadlocks did, at least, the ones that weren’t moving, dancing as if they weren’t held by the artificial gravity of the dock. It had a line of small dots over its eyelids, and both its eyes were lined with black making its soft brownish eyes look even deeper than they were. Kevin felt as if those eyes could look deep into the bottom of his own being. The being’s left eye had five black long markings, fashioned like an ancient picture of a sun’s rays. On its right cheek, it had another marking that started were its eyebrow ended and followed its cheekbone under his lower eyelid, highlighting his features. It had pointed ears, which were only visible when the dreadlocks covering them moved briefly. Its skin was slightly tanned, so the black marks looked a little purple under the dock’s lights.

The being looked a little like the medical unit on board, Kevin noticed immediately. Maybe the being wasn’t the leader, as Kevin had assumed, but an ambassador unit. Maybe A.J. had been wrong, and only one of those sentients was human, and the others were his mechanical help units.

“I want to propose a truce,” the being said, not bothering to introduce itself. Savage, Kevin decided, if it couldn’t follow proper protocol. Its hair seemed to stand a little as it spoke, and its voice was high pitched, like the voice of some of N.I.C.K.’s female battle drones.

“A truce?” Kevin frowned. The only reason the being would ask for a truce was if they were really space cowboys as its battle ships suggested. But then, A.J. wouldn’t have let them land. The A.I. was programmed to shoot on sight against space cowboys.

“Do you know where we are?” The being shot back. Kevin shook his head. It was useless to lie, and at the moment, he had the numerical advantage if the savage decided to attack. “Neither do we. And while I would gladly destroy any Alliance ship that crossed my path, I realize we both need help. One of my brothers was hurt while saving you, if you have any honor, you will repay us by allowing us the use of your medical supplies.”

Kevin narrowed his eyes. Whatever the A.I. said, the thing before him was no human. Humans did not attack the Alliance, even in thought. “I can pay my debts,” he said, after a minute. “But what guarantee do I have that when your brother is healed, you will not try to attack me?”

“That’s where the truce comes in,” the savage smiled, and Kevin could see its white teeth, its pointed fangs. “We have the means to return to known space, without star maps, but we wouldn’t survive the trip in our bulls alone. I propose that we work together, in your ship, until we are back into the Andromeda Chain. Then, we will let each other go, until next time our path cross in battle. What do you say, Captain Kevin Richardson of the Allied Starfleet?”

“I do not make deals with strangers whose names I do not know,” Kevin answered, although he knew that what the savage was saying was fair. He had read reports about the space cowboys, and he knew that they could navigate with a different system than the one used by the Starfleet. With A.J. admitting he was lost, and the glitches in the mainframe, a truce was his best bet to go back to his route.

“Fair enough,” the savage said, his smile growing. His dreadlocks lowered, looking like normal hair for a moment. Only then did Kevin admit that the constant movement had been making him nervous. “They call me Crazy Kirpk, from the Yipyay clan, and these are my men, my brothers.”

* * *

The walk to the infirmary was tense. Kevin, against all rational thought, decided to order the battle drones to stay at the docking port. While he was aware that the four able-bodied savages could try to subdue him, he was adamant in proving to ‘Crazy’ that he had honor. After Crazy had introduced itself, the non-injured savages followed its example and took off their helmets. The tall, broad one had long, silky brown hair with bright red highlights, just like the Millennium’s Medical Unit, and answered to the name ‘Crunk’. The tall slender one who had been carrying its injured mate had bright pink hair which flowed every which way in impossible patterns as if it was underwater, which in Kevin’s opinion cemented the fact that they couldn’t be human, and apparently was called ‘Spazz’. The one who had been defending the group with Crunk was blond, although his hair shone blue under certain lights, tied into a more discrete ponytail, and called himself ‘Scoop’. All of them looked male, even when Kevin still couldn’t discern if Crazy was a male or a female of the species.

They refused to take off their mate’s helmet.

“The medical unit will need to take his armor off,” Kevin commented, as they neared the Infirmary. “If you want to help him.”

“No machine will touch him,” Crazy said, gritting his teeth. “You tell us where your supplies are, we’ll take care of the rest.”

Kevin just nodded, even when he knew that the medic unit wouldn’t allow anyone touch its equipment. S.W.E.E.T. was, by far, the unit with the most bugs in Kevin’s ship. The thing acted almost like a human being. But even if A.J. said that the beings they had picked up were human, and they looked a bit like the medical unit, that didn’t made the medical unit human. The Alliance wouldn’t allow a ship with two men on board. All ships were only manned by one person, since that kept the losses to a minimum.

“You might need help to understand our technology,” Kevin tried again. He was not going to leave five aliens alone with an expensive experimental machine, truce or no truce. “Our Medical…”

“If you want to stay and watch, you can,” Crazy interrupted him, the back dreadlocks on its head rising, looking like angry snakes. “But **no** machine will touch Spark.”

They arrived at to the infirmary, and Kevin took a second before actually punching the access code. He didn’t know how the savages would react to S.W.E.E.T. It was obvious they didn’t like mechanicals, and Kevin hoped they wouldn’t consider the fact that the unit resembled them as an insult to their race.

“It’s been twenty minutes since AJ informed me that we went through a worm hole, captain,” the medical unit started saying as soon as Kevin opened the door. “I hope that you have not required my services and waited until the last possible minute.”

“I will not be your patient, S.W.E.E.T.,” Kevin said, as the medical robot turned around. It surely didn’t look artificial, now that Kevin had some other biological beings to compare it to. Shorter than Kevin, but a bit taller than Crazy, S.W.E.E.T. had been designed to look as a tanned young man, dressed in a yellow Alliance uniform. His hair was long, part of the design for the cooler units that had been in vogue ever since the first Nano Intelligent Unit had been created, but unlike N.I.C.K.’s or B.R.O.C.K.’s blond cooling devices, S.W.E.E.T.’s was dark brownish, and its tips were bright red. The Medical unit had its hair tightly tied in a long ponytail that swished as he walked. It also had pointed ears. The only detail its designers hadn’t copied from Crazy’s race were the facial markings the savages sported.

To Kevin’s surprise, Crazy looked at S.W.E.E.T., cocked his head frowning, and then indicated to his crewmates to put Spark on the infirmary’s only bed. Crunk looked at S.W.E.E.T. as if he wanted to say something, and his hair seemed to flow towards the medical unit for a moment, before stilling and falling back to Crunk’s chest.

All that hair movement was making Kevin’s nervous.

Spazz placed Spark on the bed, with the same care Kevin imagined a mother would have for her child – he didn’t remember his own so he only had the reassurance of A.J. that it was an acceptable reference - and then, even more surprisingly given their previous resistance, pushed the buttons on Spark’s armor to take off his helmet. While he did that, the others touched another hidden button in their armor, revealing their arms, and yet a third button, that folded their full gloves into wrist bracelets that seemed made of cloth. Their arms were covered with multicolored body art, making them all look even more alien.

Spark looked younger than any of the others, but that was not what called Kevin’s attention. He knew that in a war, all able bodied soldiers were needed. What surprised Kevin was that, while all the others had luscious, long hair, Spark was completely bald. There were metallic lines embedded on his skull, mimicking cornrows, but besides that and his blond eyebrows, there was not a single hair on its head. S.W.E.E.T. seemed startled at this, as he turned to see Spazz, who sharply shook his head. There were questions to be asked, Kevin knew, but he also suspected that those questions were not going to be asked with him in front of them. Just as well, the strange interaction between his medical unit and the savages was puzzling for him too, and the questions he planned to ask S.W.E.E.T couldn’t be made with an audience either.

Spazz was gently stroking Spark’s cheek, while Scoop held his right hand and Crazy his left. Crunk stayed at their side, one hand grabbing Spazz’s right hand, the other on Spark’s right shoulder. It unnerved Kevin, making his stomach lurch in a way it hadn’t for years. He had never let any of the drones on board touch him without gloves. To see that display of naked flesh touching flesh made him feel uneasy. It was an alien contact, an alien action he couldn’t understand.

“I’m sorry, sir,” S.W.E.E.T. whispered to Crazy. Kevin’s frown deepened. While the medical unit was polite, he had never spoken to Kevin with the reverence it was giving the alien now. “But I need space to treat your man. I can’t do it with you surrounding him.”

Crazy looked at the S.W.E.E.T unit, its lips drawn in a tight line. But even when Kevin feared they would refuse to move, Crazy nodded, its braids raised slightly. With that movement, the others left their comrade’s side, but kept hugging Spazz in what Kevin supposed was a supportive manner.

It reminded him a little of how N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. acted sometimes around their drones when they lost one of them in a battle. Kevin had assumed it was a drone protocol, a way of exchanging information. Now he wasn’t so sure.

“Are all of you brothers?” He asked. If they were related, Kevin could at least understand a little their actions around the possibility of one of them dying. Since he had never had anyone to mourn, or anyone to mourn with, Kevin didn’t know if that was a natural reaction during the situation, but he had read holo-files about funerals. It was a little different to see such reactions happening in front of him.

“Spazz is Spark’s brother by blood,” Crazy whispered, rubbing soothing circles on Spazz’s back. “Scoop’s by marriage, and Crunk’s and mine by choice.”

“He has a broken rib on his left side,” S.W.E.E.T. said before Kevin could answer. “But the scans don’t show any further damage. He doesn’t have any concussion, so I can fairly say that he passed out from the pain and shock when we were absorbed by the worm hole. I can microtape his rib, but I will not use the nano-tape unless you give me your permission, sir.”

“Do what you have to do,” Kevin said, but when the unit didn’t move he realized that S.W.E.E.T. wasn’t addressing him.

“Is that the only alternative?” Crazy asked, leaving its crewmates’ side to return to its original place next to the bed.

“I can set the ribs manually, then bandage him so they’ll stay in place while they heal on their own. But if I do that, he’ll be in pain until that happens.”

Crazy caressed Spark’s arms. Kevin didn’t understand the hesitation. Microtaping a broken rib only took a few minutes, and it would insure that the young man would be ready for work in less than 24 hours. The other solution sounded barbaric and time wasting.

“Do that,” Crazy finally said to Kevin’s surprise. “When he wakes up, he will decide if he prefers the machine’s solution.”

* * *

When S.W.E.E.T. finished setting and externally taping Spark’s ribs, Spazz returned to his side next to the bed. He was caressing Spark’s face and the metallic cornrows, and for the first time since he got in the ship his hair looked halfway normal, all pointing towards Spark, swishing slowly as if moved by an invisible wind.

Scoop had taken a seat on the floor, and his ponytail was wrapped around Spark’s wrist. How he had managed to do that without moving Spark, Kevin didn’t know. He didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes away from the savages’ weird hair. Crunk was still standing next to Spark, but *his* hair was still. Its points, however, kept raising a little, moving slightly in S.W.E.E.T.’s direction every time the Medical Unit moved, always pointing to it, only to still completely when he noticed Kevin watching.

There was something really strange going on there.

“We need to make clear the terms of our truce,” Kevin said to Crazy, trying to ignore the strange feeling in the pit of his stomach when he saw the savages sitting around Spark. “As well as find a place for you to stay during night cycles. If you come with me, I’m sure the others can stay with Spark until he wakes up.”

“Anything we discuss can be discussed in front of my brothers,” Crazy answered, defiantly. The creature was the only one not touching Spark, instead, his eyes were was drilling holes into Kevin’s face. Kevin couldn’t help but feel that he was being studied, just as he had studied them when they had come on board. “If you wish to call your crew, we could talk it over together. Even when I doubt they will all fit here.”

“There is no crew,” Kevin said. It was not a secret of the Alliance, and perhaps if the savages knew that the Alliance’s army consisted mostly of battle drones who could be mass replaced, they would think twice before attacking a ship again. “Just me.”

“What about the soldiers who ‘greeted’ us upon boarding? Or the man who assured us we wouldn’t be harmed before you came in? We heard his voice. What about **him**?” Crunk said, pointing at S.W.E.E.T. Kevin didn’t understood why the bigger man had talked without permission from his leader, but he didn’t pretend to understand the customs of the savages. He hesitated before answering, because there was protocol to be considered.

He finally decided to speak, because even if he was sharing with aliens details of his army, they would share with him a new way of navigation. In the end, Kevin supposed that was far more valuable.

“Cargo ships are manned by one human, and four cybernetic units: The Astrophysical Jaunt Memory Function, the Nano Intelligent Cargo Keeper’s unit, the Bio Redundant Operating Cargo Keeper’s unit, and the medical unit. Both the N.I.C.K. and the B.R.O.C.K. can create autodependant drones. The N.I.C.K. drones were the ones you saw at the dock. The one you pointed at is the S.W.E.E.T., the medical unit on board. I know it looks human, but I can assure you it is an automaton with an advanced A.I. in its software.”

Crazy narrowed its eyes, fixing its clear gaze on S.W.E.E.T. “You know all our crew, it’s fair that we get to know yours before working in the terms of our treaty. If the machines you call crew can think for themselves, bring them here. It is fair, five of your crew, five of ours.”

Kevin glared at the alien for a moment. He hadn’t missed the way in which it never talked about the others as their underlings. They respected it, even S.W.E.E.T. seemed to revere Crazy. And while he knew that protocol indicated that the units’ main bodies were to be kept as away from the enemy as possible, Kevin figured that maybe B.R.O.C.K. could do an independent scan. He didn’t trust AJ’s refusal to admit that they could be aliens. Kevin knew that what he was seeing was not a group of human beings.

He activated the communicator built into his left glove to communicate with the rest of the ship. “AJ, materialize your image next to my body heat. Call B.R.O.C.K. and N.I.C.K. to the Infirmary, and tell them to keep the battle drones on stand by.”

“What can I do for you, captain?” AJ’s light body materialized next to him, and Kevin couldn’t stop a small smile seeing the aliens’ hair stand up a bit, surprised. It was obvious they had never seen a hologram. AJ was still in his bugged-out appearance, but for once, Kevin didn’t mind. The body art was similar to what the aliens themselves had, so they could interpret it as a show of respect.

“You’ve met our guests,” Kevin waved in the general direction of the group. Although Crazy’s eyes were fixed on them, the others seemed to be talking among each other in a language that Kevin didn’t understood. It was only then that he realized that the aliens had been speaking his own language all this time, and it hadn’t been his omni-translator the one doing the work.

A new mystery to be pondered, because Kevin didn’t think the space cowboys had ever tried to learn the human language. And the Omni-translator could translate the space cowboy’s language, so if it wasn’t picking up whatever the strange beings were speaking, maybe they weren’t space cowboys.

“Yes, I have, captain. Do you wish for me to act as an ambassador in good faith?” The A.I. asked, seriously. Kevin shook his head slightly. He envied the aliens a little. They could talk among themselves without him understanding them: he didn’t have that luxury. He wanted AJ to scan them again, and scan S.W.E.E.T while he was at it. The way in which the aliens kept looking at the medical unit was no longer annoying. It was suspicious.

“N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. reporting to the infirmary, captain.” The door opened to let the two units in. N.I.C.K. was constructed following the basic structure of a human male but could only be confused with a real human being when he was in his standby mode. As he was in battle mode when he came trough the door, he looked like a bright yellow humanoid robot with a human head. N.I.C.K. was one of the oldest battle models, and his human-like form was that of a young man in his twenties, because someone had thought that a blond, blue eyed kid wouldn’t be seen as a threat by the aliens until the robots pulled out their impressive weapon’s system. N.I.C.K. very rarely used his helmet, and only stayed in battle mode when he thought Kevin wanted to see him ready for action.

“N.I.C.K., activate your standby mode,” Kevin said, aware that the aliens could construct N.I.C.K.’s ready weapons as a threat, even if they had asked for its presence. N.I.C.K. nodded an affirmative, and Kevin again had the pleasure to see the aliens’ surprised faces when the more obvious mechanical parts of N.I.C.K. folded into themselves over and over again, until N.I.C.K. looked like just a human with a black uniform consisting of trousers, boots, and vest.

Behind N.I.C.K. was B.R.O.C.K., the maintenance unit, who had taken to using his standby form unless it was absolutely needed. It was also an old model, created when scientist had decided that their soldiers needed to see human faces in their solitary trips, so he had a kind, warm face, even if it was obvious it was artificial. Its fake hair was a very light shade of brown, and just like the S.W.E.E.T. unit, it was long enough to cool his body in case of overheating, meaning that it reached freely to his waist. In the past, it had been shorter, but after the ‘anomaly’ situation –a situation that Kevin refused to think about- the maintenance unit had been making it grow. It was yet another thing that Kevin found annoying, but today he realized it could work in his favor. Especially if the aliens thought B.R.O.C.K. was like S.W.E.E.T. But this time, the hair of the aliens stayed in place.

“The ship presents no damage, and the generators are extracting energy as we speak, captain. My calculations inform that we will be mobile in twenty four hours,” B.R.O.C.K. said, before turning to see the aliens, raising an eyebrow at the sight. The gesture was disturbingly human. “S.W.E.E.T: created drones? I was not aware it was among his functions, but I guess A.A.R.O.N. will like the company.”

Kevin turned to see AJ with detached curiosity, but the AI didn’t seem faced at the idea that B.R.O.C.K. thought the aliens were S.W.E.E.T. drones. He needed to have a private talk with his ship, as soon as possible. “They are our guests, B.R.O.C.K., Crazy Kirpk, Crunk, Scoop, Spazz and Spark, of the Yipyay clan. They were absorbed by the worm hole, like we were and we will work together to return to known space.”

B.R.O.C.K. and N.I.C.K. frowned in tandem, a sign that they were reviewing their personal datafiles in search of a similar situation. It was B.R.O.C.K. that finished first.

“We do not have lodging ready for all of them, Captain,” the maintenance unit said, his face serious. “But we can work on something. Do we have a timeframe for our return?”

Kevin turned to see the aliens, who had fallen silent when the two nano units came in. He expected Crazy to answer, but the being just turned to look at Scoop. The blond alien sighed, looking down at his hands.

“It depends on where we are,” Scoop said. His voice was low and grave. It reverberated on Kevin’s bones. “I can’t say for sure, but unless we got amazingly lucky, we’re talking about anywhere between a year and five.”

Kevin had to bite back a groan. It couldn’t be that long, he tried to tell himself. The aliens had no way of knowing how fast a ship like the ESS Millennium could travel. The aliens could have a rudimentary understanding of the way time was measured in human language, and ‘years’ was in fact ‘months’ for them. Anything that meant not spending five years in the company of other biological beings who liked to touch each other. Anything that didn’t involve letting enemies of the Alliance walk freely around the ship for five years, because he had agreed to a truce.

“Hopefully it will be less than that,” to Kevin’s surprise, it was the S.W.E.E.T. unit who spoke. Its eyes were lowered. It was pointedly not looking at the group of aliens. Crunk, on the other hand, had his own gaze fixed on S.W.E.E.T’s body.

B.R.O.C.K. for its part, seemed completely unfazed by all of it. “Five years makes it unacceptable to not have proper lodging for you. Captain, may I be excused? With A.A.R.O.N. and five drones help, I can have five cabins ready for use in ten hours.”

“We do not need five quarters,” Crazy said raising its hand. “We only need one.”

Kevin looked at the being again. Obviously they didn’t trust him, if they wanted to be together all the time. “I will keep my word, you won’t be harmed on board of the Millennium. You can sleep separately.”

“You sleep **alone**?” Spazz looked horrified at the idea, his pink hair raised high and puffed like a cat angered. “Why?”

“Spazz, relax.” Crazy subtly reminded him, reaching to caress the man’s arm. It seemed to work, as Kevin saw the pink fluffy hair slowly return to its original position. “Our clan’s custom is to share a room, all the time, so we only need one, Mr. Brock. Thank you for your offer, anyway.”

“We do not have any…” Kevin started to say, only to be interrupted by his maintenance drone, who apparently had felt bold at being referred to with respect.

“There’s one place, it only needs to be readied for use. I’ll have your lodgings ready within two hours, with the captain’s leave.”

Kevin nodded, knowing well that the unit was programmed to take that as a verbal order. He wasn’t sure which quarters B.R.O.C.K. was referring to, but then, there were parts of his ship he had never been to, or even forgotten. Most of his days passed between the bridge and his own small quarters.

“N.I.C.K, you can go with B.R.O.C.K. We need to preserve energy, so I don’t want any more drones made,” Kevin said to the security unit, who briskly nodded and turned around. “And N.I.C.K., that means I want that defective drone deactivated and disassembled soon.”

Kevin ignored the look that N.I.C.K. sent him. Whatever flaw they had developed in their programming, in the end they were only tools made to serve him. And if he was going to spend five years in the company of aliens, he was going to need to have his tools in working order.

* * *

True to its word, B.R.O.C.K. only took one hour to come back and announce the cabin was ready to be used. It had been a tense hour for Kevin, who had stayed to watch the interaction of the aliens and the S.W.E.E.T unit.

There had been no interaction between them. The unit had simply ignored them, only going near the group when he had to check Spark’s vitals.

Spark woke up in pain about half an hour after B.R.O.C.K. left, and to Kevin’s surprise, refused the microtaping, not with words, but emphatically shaking his head. The dislike the race had against machines was deep, and Kevin wondered why Crazy had been so polite towards the B.R.O.C.K. unit.

After Spark woke up, the touching increased. They all seemed to find reassurance by stroking his cheek, or when he did the same to them. And Spazz’s hair was practically flying, tying itself around Spark’s fingers.

The younger alien didn’t talk at all, just looked at Crazy with mournful, blue eyes for a moment, not questioning where they were. Kevin was starting to suspect he was mute.

B.R.O.C.K. however, seemed quite enthusiastic with more people in the ship. It gave him an excuse to do something *besides* routine maintenance sweeps, even when Kevin didn’t understand how the robot could want to do something else with his programming.

“The captain used to use these quarters, long ago,” B.R.O.C.K. said, punching the code to open the door to a large room. It looked Spartan, but habitable, with a large bed in the center, and two smaller doors, one of which presumably led to a shower. Kevin knew the room, but the memories of it were unclear. He couldn’t actively remember being in it. His own quarters were closer to the bridge, and they were a lot smaller than this. B.R.O.C.K. had fashioned four small emergency cots next to the big bed. “Right now I cannot synthesize more beds but when we recharge the ship’s energy, it won’t be a problem. We brought all the spare sheets and pillows to make the floor more comfortable. This is only a temporary measure.”

“We understand,” Crazy looked at the room with apparent indifference, while Spazz helped Spark walk towards the bed. “Until tomorrow, there is nothing else we can do. Can I have your word that we will not be interrupted in this room, Captain?”

“No one will enter without your permission as long as our truce is in effect,” Kevin said, nodding. He would keep his word, if only to make their return faster.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Crazy said, its smile growing bigger. Then as an afterthought, the alien continued. “Could Sweet come to check Spark’s ribs in two hours? I want his healing carefully monitored.”

“I’ll order it to come here,” Kevin assured his guest. He made a small bow with his head and turned around, leaving the aliens to their own devices for at least a sleep cycle.

* * *

B.R.O.C.K. found N.I.C.K. on the dock, downloading the information from the drones who had been guarding the Captain’s guests before the truce. There were at the moment fifty active battledrones, and B.R.O.C.K. knew from experience that N.I.C.K. usually took three hours to download the information from them all.

The battle ships of the Captain’s guests were in the center of the dock, apparently inoffensive. B.R.O.C.K. didn’t know if that was true, but his programming was limited to the Millennium’s well-being. N.I.C.K. was the one who could handle external input.

And it had been a long time since the last time there had been external input on the docks.

The problem was, B.R.O.C.K. was not sure how much time. His own internal clock told him one thing, but AJ’s clock, the one who actually controlled the ship, said another. B.R.O.C.K. knew that the captain thought they were all defective, and there were days in which B.R.O.C.K. agreed with him.

The mere fact that he could agree with the captain was a sure sign of internal errors. He was aware that he was not supposed to be aware.

His programming was not extended to give him a sense of ‘self’, but B.R.O.C.K. had come to realize his own independence long ago. N.I.C.K. too, which was the reason why both units tried to avoid the captain, who wouldn’t force them to reformat their drives, but would never treat them as self-aware beings.

The mindless drones rated higher in the captain’s mind, even when the drones wouldn’t exist without the two nano units that created them.

“We will not deactivate A.A.R.O.N.,” N.I.C.K. said, his fingers inserted deep into the last battledrone’s facial ports. The other drones were already deactivated, waiting only for N.I.C.K.’s programming to bring them online again.

“The Captain’s orders are to be fulfilled,” B.R.O.C.K. answered even when he disliked the idea. Another glitch, another bug to repair, even when B.R.O.C.K. knew that he wouldn’t. Repairing the bug that allowed him to create the responses of feelings, to make him react almost as a human, was not an action he was willing to take. Logically, it sounded like a suicide. “Prime Directive Three.”

“All steps will be taken to insure the unit’s survival,” N.I.C.K. shot back, his voice taking a dull mechanic tone that B.R.O.C.K. had almost forgotten. They never talked about their mutual glitches, and B.R.O.C.K. sometimes ran the data through his logic circuits, coming up with the only possible explanation. They were experiencing human denial. If only he had the data to remember when it had started happening, he might be able to come up with an explanation. But he still didn’t want to fix it. “Prime Directive Two.”

“A.A.R.O.N’s functionality doesn’t affect your own, N.I.C.K.,” B.R.O.C.K. pointed out.

“There’s something wrong with my software, B.R.O.C.K.,” N.I.C.K. said, softly, not looking in B.R.O.C.K.’s direction. “There’s no data to explain this, but A.A.R.O.N. is important. We created him, he’s not a battle drone, and he’s not a maintenance drone. His software is different. I can’t download his information.”

B.R.O.C.K. processed the information, carefully. He could download information from his drones, just as N.I.C.K. did with his own. He couldn’t download a battle drone data bank, as their software wasn’t compatible. He had always assumed A.A.R.O.N. was, despite the mistakes made in his creation, a battle drone, so he had never tired to download info from the drone. Maybe he should try, before N.I.C.K.’s logic circuits imploded.

“There’s something wrong with my software too, N.I.C.K.,” B.R.O.C.K. admitted, and N.I.C.K. looked up sharply at him. It was the first time they actually spoke about the problem. “Logic indicates that we are to follow the captain’s orders. But I do not want to see A.A.R.O.N. deactivated and destroyed. I don’t want. You understand the problem in that sentence.”

N.I.C.K. nodded, pulling his fingers away from the last drone who shut down immediately. “I do. It’s the same virus that infects me, then. Because my logic circuit agrees with you. The captain is to be obeyed. But I won’t.”

“What will you do then?” B.R.O.C.K. asked. Another glitch, another error. He wasn’t supposed to ask questions for the sake of it. He only asked questions on a need to know basis. He didn’t need to know what N.I.C.K’s circuits were processing. He just wanted to know. He wanted to help, if possible.

N.I.C.K.’s ocular units turned black, as he looked at B.R.O.C.K., and if the maintenance unit had been human, the words out of N.I.C.K.’s mouth would’ve chilled his blood.

“If the Captain tries to hurt A.A.R.O.N., I’ll break protocol and kill him.”

* * *

Kevin sat on the command chair at the bridge, his eyes focused on a holographic window that hovered in front of his face. It showed the interior of the cabin where the aliens were, at the moment, tending to Spark’s wounds.

He had promised them no one would enter the room, but he was not going to let them have more privacy than what was absolutely needed.

Kevin also had to admit he was intrigued.

On the screen, he saw how Spazz hugged Spark close to him while the others grabbed all the sheets that B.R.O.C.K. had provided them with and created a nest with the bed’s mattress put on the floor. The sheets, the covers, the pillows, every single thing went into the nest, and when it was done, they helped Spark into it. Kevin frowned, puzzled, as he saw how the savages took off their armor tops revealing their chests. He could see that the tattoos from their arms went also around their backs, each creating a different pattern, with figures he couldn’t identify. The last one to take its shirt was Crazy, and Kevin found himself holding his breath.

Crazy’s chest was as flat as the others, and the spirals on his back were far more complex than the ones in all the others. He was a male, or at least appeared to be one, but he was still different from the others. Kevin wondered what that difference meant.

Shirtless, the savages sat in a circle inside the nest. Spazz hugging Spark, Scoop at Spazz’s right, Crunk at Spark’s left, Crazy between Scoop and Spark. Their hair seemed to move following invisible currents, as both Scoop and Crazy undid their own ponytails, letting their hair flow free. Crazy’s braids reached halfway down his back, and Kevin couldn’t imagine how long the savage’s hair really was, free of the braids.

He closed his eyes, frowning. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling, when he saw the alien hair lowered like that.

“Esto fue algo inesperado,” Crazy said, and Kevin’s frown deepened. That was the language he had heard in the infirmary, the one his Omni-translator was supposed to transform immediately into human words.

“A.J., why is the Omni-translator turned off?” He asked, as the holographic mainframe appeared before him.

“It isn’t captain. Your guest’s language is not in my data base.” A.J. answered, cocking his head to watch the screen. The action was useless. As the ship’s mainframe, A.J. knew what was happening in every single of the active cameras of the ship even before the captain.

“I thought we had the space cowboys’ language analyzed and translated since the third year of the war, A.J.” On the screen, Crunk was gesturing widely, his red hair looking even brighter. Kevin turned off the volume. It was useless if he didn’t understood what they were saying.

“We do sir, but your guests are human,” the mainframe answered, unwavering. “The space cowboys’ language doesn’t fit the parameters of what they’re saying.”

Kevin let out a long, suffering sigh. He had grown used to the A.I.’s bugs, because even if he hated to admit it, having a personality made the A.I. less boring. That was why Kevin called it AJ instead of the actual name for the A.I. He had baptized the A.I. as ‘Annoying Jerk’ long before the glitches appeared. By the time the A.I. actually got the joke, Kevin had long forgotten the original name of his mainframe. But if it said that the language wasn’t the Space Cowboys’, then there was the possibility that Kevin had picked up something different. A new alien race that apparently also shared the hate against the Alliance and the singular battleships.

“B.R.O.C.K.’s initial analysis had them as S.W.E.E.T.’s drones, how do you explain that?” he asked. On the screen, Crazy was hugging Crunk, who seemed very angry at something. Kevin’s stomach lurched painfully. Why did those savages insisted on **touching** so much? “It was not an internal scan, of course, just a visual one, but it didn’t hesitate.”

“The external shell of the medical unit does simulate the same outer parameters of your guests, sir. If I had no way of scanning their interior, I would make the same mistake,” AJ answered with a smugness that was almost human. “But I am not a lowly maintenance unit.”

“I want a full scan of the ship, AJ How many humans are there on board?”

“Six, sir.” AJ answered without delay. Kevin shook his head. The things on the old captain’s quarters couldn’t be human.

“How many biologically-based beings are there on board?”

“Sir, the Nano units are biologically-based,” AJ began saying. That was true, Kevin knew. Deep, deep inside both N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. there was a small single cell organism that allowed their nano circuits to work.

“How many?”

“Three…no. Four,” the holographic mainframe frowned, and for a second, its holographic form swayed. “Five. Nine. Ten. Four. Fifty four.”

Kevin glared at the hologram. “How many?”

“Conflicting results, sir,” AJ answered, flickering out and on again. “There appears to be an infinite loop in your question. Humans are biologically based. So are Nano units. But Humans are not considered biologically based, so my logic circuit is hitting a wall because of that.”

“Not counting humans or drones, how many biologically based life forms are on board, at this precise moment?”

“Four, sir,” AJ repeated, sounding surer of his answer now that Kevin had defined the parameters. Usually, the mainframe itself could limit the parameters of the inquires, without Kevin having to do so verbally.

“AJ, I want you to reboot your system to its fabricated parameters, now.” Kevin sighed. The rebooting took only a few seconds, after all, AJ still was one of the top computers in the alliance, but he hated asking for AJ to do it. In Kevin’s mind, rebooting the system was the equivalent of admitting there was an error he couldn’t solve.

“As you wish, captain,” the A.I.’s hologram turned off, and Kevin was alone again, watching the monitor waver as AJ went painfully through each of its databanks. On the monitor, something called the attention of the aliens, and Scoop went to open the door. It was the S.W.E.E.T. unit, which diligently went to Spark’s side, to review the bandages.

Kevin’s frown returned as he saw how the unit’s cooling system reacted again to the aliens’ presence, particularly moving in Crunk’s direction. S.W.E.E.T itself, however, seemed not to notice the presence of the bigger alien.

“System rebooted, Captain Richardson,” the holographic form of the A.I. materialized again, and Kevin was glad to see that at least, the rebooting had seemed to fix the common glitch. AJ was now wearing its blue Alliance-complaint uniform, his hair was again completely brown, short and cropped, and there was no sign of eye paint or dark glasses. His mainframe was back to normal, just as Kevin needed it. While he knew that rebooting the system usually worked, Kevin didn’t use the solution very often. It was, at best, just a temporary patch until they could get to an Alliance base where real technicians could fix the problem. “Do you wish to input a new inquiry?”

“Yes, AJ,” Kevin said, focusing on the way S.W.E.E.T. turned to see Crazy, head bowed. “When was the S.W.E.E.T. unit installed on the ship?”

“Stellar date 10.10.79.09.” Kevin frowned. That date was almost ten earth years ago, and he remembered that S.W.E.E.T. had been installed the last time he had touched port. It couldn’t be ten years.

“Who ordered the installation?”

“Dr. Wright, sir. Of the medical division at JI-2002-2978. Order file 2980-9987-34IWTY, sir.”

Kevin nodded. The order issue and number sounded right, and a fake number would have been stopped by AJ anyhow. Still, there was a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind.

“AJ, what does S.W.E.E.T. stand for?”

* * *

Crazy stayed silent, his braids softly brushing together, as his friends helped him fix a proper nest for them to rest. Humans were too strange, insisting on separating themselves from their own brothers. Crazy had seen human lodgings before, and he still didn’t understand how they could sleep closed away from everything. It was unnatural.

The Captain of this particular ship seemed even more unnatural, avoiding all contact. It was a puzzle for Crazy, since even the weirdest humans he had met before accepted some sort of contact. The Captain hadn’t even offered his ungloved hand to seal their truce.

When the nest was done and Spark safely laying on his brother’s arms, Crazy took off his armor shirt, setting the example for the rest to follow. They had much to talk before they were interrupted, and they would also need a good night’s sleep. Even if the human captain had accepted the truce, Crazy didn’t think they could trust him too far.

He looked at his brothers as they took their places in the meeting. They all had their battle markings bright and visible, a sure sign that they couldn’t relax on enemy territory. Untying his hair proved to be difficult for Crazy. He wasn’t used to letting his guard down during a battle, and he had the feeling that every minute in Captain Richardson’s ship would be a challenge.

“ _This was unexpected,_ ” he said, in their own language. Their clan’s spies had mentioned that the humans had machines that could make them understand everything, but Crazy had seen the captain’s face when they had used the clan’s dialect in the infirmary. He hadn’t understood. And while Crazy trusted that they wouldn’t be physically interrupted, he knew there could be other ways to spy on the meeting. He was not going to make that easy. “ _I thought humans would travel in packs._ ”

“ _But the captain was lying._ ” Spazz, who could never be a spy for the clan but whose sight always, unerringly found its target, was smiling. “ _There is more life in this ship than what he thinks._ ”

“ _One doesn’t need your sight to see that, Spazz,_ ” Scoop half laughed. Scoop was the last one who had joined Crazy’s battle squad, and he had been a great addition to replace the ones fallen in their never ending-war against the humans. The talents Scoop had were the ones in which they all were counting to make it out alive of the predicament they were. “ _I’m sure Spark noticed, and he was unconscious half the time!_ ”

“ _The Captain doesn’t know his ship,_ ” Spark murmured, so softly that they could barely hear him. “ _Humans never learn **why** things work, they only use them for their benefit. The Captain doesn’t know what goes on inside the machines._ ”

“ _That was not a machine out there!_ ” Crunk growled, his hair glowing bright in anger. Crazy was afraid that his brother would react that way in the moment he had seen the so called ‘Medical Unit’ of the human ship.

“ _Crunk, calm down,_ ” Crazy warned. He knew the reason of Crunk’s anger, but he couldn’t address it. Not until they knew for sure if they could keep secrets while inside the human’s ship.

“ _Don’t you dare to tell me to calm down, Crazy! You’re all happy because someone could treat Spark but you saw what happened out there! You all heard!_ ” Crunk was getting really close to saying what Crazy already knew, but he couldn’t let it be said out loud. Not until they were sure they were safe.

“ _Crunk, shut up!_ ” Crazy growled, his braids standing up, showing his brother that he was willing to fight if needed. He hated to reach that point, to have to use his authority over his friends, but sometimes, there was no way to prevent it. Crunk was sometimes too stubborn for his own good. The only thing that consoled Crazy was that his brother wouldn’t hesitate about doing the same thing if Crazy was the one being irrational. “ _We’re in the enemy field. We do not discuss those problems in the enemy field!_ ”

Whatever Crunk might’ve answered was interrupted by a soft knock on the door. As Crazy had expected, the reason of their discussion was behind the door, waiting to be let in. When Sweet barely acknowledged them, going straight to Spark, Crazy’s suspicions about the room they were in intensified.

One had to be blind, or a human idiot not to see the way in which Sweet reached for Crunk, even when he tried not to. It broke Crazy’s heart, and his own hair reached to his brother, trying to show that in hard times, he was there for him too. There were many possible reasons for Sweet’s actions. He could’ve been caught and brainwashed by humans. He could’ve been tortured and maimed, like Spark had been, only that for Sweet there had been no rescue party.

Until now. Even though Crazy was going to wait until they knew more of their situation, there would be six riders leaving that forsaken human ship.

Sweet finished checking Spark’s ribs, although Crazy was sure that that was only for show. It hadn’t even been an hour since he had bandaged them in the first place. Before leaving, however, Sweet walked towards him, bowing his head in respect. Crazy clicked his tongue. It had been a while since someone did that in front of him, his brothers knew he hated it.

“ _Protocol isn’t necessary around me,_ ” Crazy said, hoping that Sweet would answer if he could, wondering if he wasn’t leading his brothers into a trap. “ _Say what you have to say, freely and without fear._ ”

Sweet walked closer to him, head still bowed. Obviously, Crazy could say whatever he wanted about protocol; Sweet was not going to listen anyway.

“This is the medicine for Mr. Spark, sir,” Sweet said, handing them a small bottle with pills and a piece of paper crumbled against it. “Follow the instructions on the note for the dosage.”

Crazy nodded, unfolding the note. It was written in their language, and Crazy had to control himself not to swear as he read it.

“ _My lord, I have to ask you to leave the Millennium, or you will put at risk the mission that your father gave me._ ”


	2. Crew and Clan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the first day on board the ESS Millennium, Crazy and his brothers discover that there are a lot of mysteries inside the ship to be solved.

Crunk woke up when he heard the soft sound of the door opening and closing.

He was up on his feet and with his armor on in less than ten seconds, his eyes always set the second door of the quarters that Brock had prepared for them.

“ _Crunk? What’s wrong?_ ” Crazy was up and ready too, as Crunk knew he would be. While Crazy usually slept on the center of the nest, and thus didn’t notice if someone got up until they were all awake, this time he had given his place to Spark. When Crunk got up, Crazy had immediately known that something was wrong.

“ _We’re not alone, Crazy_.” Crunk muttered, his hair pointing to the doorway. He raised his weapon, knowing full well that Crazy would wake up the others and be ready to give back up. “ _The human broke his word._ ”

Crunk had been raised as a warrior, his father was the Chief of the King’s guard.

Although the clan believed in equality, and the King’s family lived just like everyone else, the royal bloodline was essential to the clan’s existence since their gifts were so unique.

Which made the present situation even more dangerous.

Crazy was the clan King’s firstborn son, the crown prince who would one day rule the clan.

Crunk was Crazy’s brother under the law of the clan. He was twelve years old when his father had married Crazy’s father and he still remembered the day when he had been introduced to his new brother, and was not impressed at all. The Prince was ten years older than Crunk, and more than ten inches shorter, looking defenseless. Crunk took Crazy under his care, protecting him from all danger. Seeing that, and despite the fact that Crunk was too young and hadn’t even earned his place among the riders, the King called Crunk to his chambers one day, entrusting him with the clan’s greatest treasure: Crazy’s safety.

Crunk had learned very fast that Crazy never followed protocol. Raised to be connected with all the clan, he had been taught that he was no different from any member of it; warriors, healers, navigators, shamans, and nobles. Because of that, Crazy never acted as if he was superior just for his birth right.

Crazy fought at his brothers’ side, like a warrior. He was determined to do his part to end the war, and he never shied away from a battle. The prince had made a vow the day Crunk returned after rescuing Spark from the humans: he wouldn’t rest until he found a way to stop their enemy.

For the first time in the ten years, Crunk was grateful that his brother insisted on being treated equally all the time. They were deep in enemy territory now, and if the human captain discovered how valuable Crazy was as a hostage, the clan’s existence could be threatened.

Crazy was not the only worry in Crunk’s mind. He had finally found Sweet after ten years, and because Sweet was fulfilling a very important mission, Crunk had to treat him as if he was a machine.

“Come out, weapons in plain sight, or we will shoot!” Crunk yelled, his red hair flaming. All his anger had to be contained. He had to be clearheaded to respond to the threat.

“I have no weapons’ system,” a small voice said from inside the other room. Seconds later, a youngling who couldn’t be older than 14 human years old came out, hands raised and looking scared. It was a blond kid with blue eyes, looking a bit like Nick; Crunk noticed immediately. Enough to be blood brothers. But the human captain had told them that Nick was a robot, and Crunk was almost sure that robots couldn’t breed.

Of course, the idiot human also thought that Sweet was a robot. Sweet, who was warm, kind and alive. Crunk was willing to bet that there were a lot of things that the captain didn’t know about his ship.

Next to him, he could feel the others tense.

Robot or not, the kid had entered their lair. That was enough for him to be considered a threat, even if his judgment told him that five riders against a kid was overkill.

“Who are you?” Crazy asked, lowering his own weapon. Crunk sighed. His brother trusted that they would defend him, but that didn’t change the fact that he shouldn’t be taking those risks.

“I’m A.A.R.O.N,” The kid smiled brightly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. I just wanted to see you. I had no idea you slept so lightly. The Captain can sleep through a meteor shower.”

“Crazy, ten cuidado,” Crunk warned his brother, holding Crazy’s shoulder to keep him away from the human. “Los humanos son traicioneros.”

“Wow!” Aaron didn’t seem to notice the hostile looks everyone was giving him. “You even sound just like Sweet when he’s tired. Brock told me that you were Sweet drones, but Nick said you weren’t. That’s why I wanted to come and see you, to see if you were Sweet drones for real!”

“You’re a friend of Sweet?” Crazy asked, getting closer. Crunk tightened his grip on his weapon. He was trying not to dwell too much on the fact that Sweet was considered a robot by the humans.

“Sweet lets me stay at the infirmary when the Captain is in a bad mood,“ Aaron turned to see Crazy. Apparently, the kid couldn’t answer a simple question without giving extra details. Crunk figured that could be useful. “But he isn’t my friend. He says he can’t be.”

“Because he’s a machine?” Crazy sounded as if he were fishing for information. That made sense, Crunk knew. If Sweet was trying to pass himself off as a machine, then befriending a human would break his cover, since Sweet had always been nice to youngsters. And since the kid was so talkative, it was obvious he was unable to keep a secret, even if he wanted to.

“He hasn’t really said why,” Aaron answered, confirming Crunk’s thoughts. He looked sad as he spoke. “But I know why he says he can’t. It’s because my hardware is defective and my software is filled with anomalies. I’m broken.”

“ _He says he’s a robot, but he doesn’t look like one_.” Crazy frowned, turning to see his brothers. Crunk thought that the kid really didn’t look like a robot, didn’t sound like one. He only talked about himself as if he were a robot, which made no sense.

“Crazy, mira,” Spazz spoke up, breaking the silence and pointing at the kid’s chest.

Crunk saw immediately what his brother was pointing at, even when it was impossible, if the kid really was a mechanical.

The kid’s chest was rising up and down, very softly.

Aaron was breathing.

* * *

Spark was the youngest of a family of seven, and had been trained all his life to be a warrior, like four of his older brothers. The House of Hynn was famous for the warriors born to it, and thus Justin’s mother had always prided herself on teaching her sons the art of war. Only Spazz, who was ten years older than Spark, was different. He had been chosen by the Universe to become a Shaman, but even he had been taught the basics of the fight under their mother’s careful watch. The first lesson Mother Hynn taught them was that Warriors didn’t hate.

Hate made warriors clumsy. Hate could make them lose the battle, because it clouded the mind.

But Spark hadn’t learned that lesson. There were two things that he truly hated, that no amount of meditation could erase. He hated humans, and their machines. When he was younger, he hadn’t even know what hate was, but thanks to humans, he had learned.

He couldn’t stop blaming himself for the trouble his squad was in now. They had been absorbed by the worm hole because he had been hurt, and he hadn’t been fast enough to get out of it on time. They now had to work within a human ship to be able to return with their families, and Spark couldn’t think of anything worse.

When Crazy woke him up, Spark cursed himself for falling asleep. He knew humans were treacherous, he knew the kind of things they did to those who were different. Falling asleep on a human ship was the equivalent of losing your weapon in the middle of a battle.

Spark had been captured by humans with the rest his squad. He had spent three years living in a cage, seeing his clanmates being tortured by and experimented on by human scientists. But unlike his clanmates, he had been lucky for a while. They had tagged him as the control subject and had thus left him alone, right until the very end. When Crunk rescued him, Spark had been the only one left alive, but he was no longer untouched by human cruelty. Even now, eight years later, he still woke up screaming, remembering the day when the human scientists had finally decided to experiment on him, connecting their machines to his body. The kid’s voice, empty and lost, reminded Spark of how afraid he had been when Crunk had gotten him out of that prison.

“Why do you say you’re broken? There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with you,” Spark said, looking coldly at the youngster. Kid or not, he was still human. Or, if his claims were true, a machine. And human-looking machines were the most dangerous.

“Because I am broken,” The kid turned to see him, and Spark frowned. He had seen many robots’ eyes, gray, dead and dull. But the kid’s eyes were blue and warm. They looked alive. “I can’t even synchronize my motherboard with the parent units.”

 _“No wonder the Captain thinks Sweet is a drone,_ ” Crunk muttered. “ _Either humans have gotten a lot better making mechanicals, or that Captain is talking out of his ass.”_

“ _Crunk, the kid might understand us,”_ Scoop admonished, not taking his eyes away from the human. “ _I don’t think it’s a machine. Spazz?_ ”

Spark looked at his brother. Spazz was a shaman, and he had been trained to find the spark of life, no matter where it hid. That particular ability had become very useful in battle, since Spazz could always find a target, no matter where they were. While Spazz was the most peaceful of the squad, he was also the most lethal. He took no prisoners in battle, as revenge for his brother’s suffering.

Spazz looked at the kid, his blue eyes sparkling in the way they did when Spazz concentrated, which wasn’t often, and shook his head. _“I don’t know. I don’t think he’s a machine, but I can’t be sure. There’s... something off about him. He feels alive.”_

“Enough,” Crazy interrupted, using the human language that Spark despised so much. “Kid, did the Captain send you here?”

“No. He doesn’t talk to me at all. The Captain likes me even less than Sweet does,” Aaron looked down at his hands. “He wants me disassembled. N.I.C.K. told me so. The Captain thinks I’m useless.”

Spark watched as his brother’s hair puffed, Crazy’s braids sneaking out to answer. He hated being cut off from the silent conversations of his clan, the conversations that were held in the subtle movement of their hair. Thanks to the humans, Spark would never know the joy of that communication again, and his brothers were always careful not to indulge themselves in it when Spark was around. He knew that they were talking in their secret language now only because the kid was there.

The kid who, apparently, was also cut off from his own race’s means of silent communication. That made Spark identify a little with the youngling, although he couldn’t help but hate the mere idea that he would have anything in common with a human.

“Disassemble?” he asked, trying not to think about his brothers’ hair. “You mean that he wants to kill you?”

“He wants to end my operations, yeah,” the kid answered, looking to his feet. “Nick says that when a drone is disassembled its memory and parts go back to Nick, but since we can’t synchronize at all, I’ll probably just be tossed into outer space, I guess. They won’t even recycle my parts because they’re not compatible with Nick.”

“Sorry, Sirs.” Spark recognized the voice behind the door as the mechanical unit Brock. It sounded different from Aaron’s, more electronic. “But the captain requests your presence on the bridge. The Millennium’s solar batteries are recharged now so we can move from our position as soon as you indicate the direction to follow.”

“Tell the Captain we’ll meet him at the dock,” Scoop said, taking the lead, looking at the kid who was still cringing in the doorway. Spark sighed. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one affected by the boy’s story. He doubted any of the others would be willing to give the Captain a chance to explain why he would want to kill the boy. “If he wants to get out of here, it will be on our terms.”

* * *

Scoop realized that the landing dock looked very different with the lights on. It was an enormous dock that could easily house a battalion, and still have space to spare. When they had arrived, worried about Spark’s health, Scoop had barely noticed the size of it.

Their bulls were still where they had left them, surrounded by the fifty deactivated battledrones. Scoop thought it was an eerie sight; the drones, lined up in perfect order, heads bowed down. Of all the riders, Scoop was the one who had seen the least amount of humans on his time on the field. But he had gotten the chance to study their machines, and each discovery made him realize that it was impossible to reach an understanding of the human race.

Knowing that humans created machines that **could** think, that were aware that they existed and that could think for themselves, but still treated those machines as mere tools was one of the most horrifying things that was known about humans. That alone was enough for the clan to consider the human race monstrous.

The clan’s philosophy of the universe was very simple. Everything that could think was alive and had the right to be heard, to voice its opinion. Even a human would have his chance to speak before the council of clans, if one was ever allowed to attend.

Humans, however, seemed to take intelligence for granted. During the war, the clan had discovered that inside of every thinking machine there was half a living brain. Shamans, like Spazz, had seen this first, because the Shamans had the sight, the ability of seeing the spark of life in every corner of the universe, no matter how weak. But it hadn’t been until the healers had managed to get their hands on a human robot when the clan had discovered the full reach of human insanity.

Crunk and his squad had captured four human drones when they rescued Spark from the human laboratory. Scoop’s wife, Scarlet, had been one of the healers who studied the machines and discovered the hideous truth inside them.

Scoop had vowed to his wife that day that she would never have to see one of her brothers suffer like that again.

What Scarlet and the other healers had discovered about the drones had been almost as bad as what the humans had done to Spark.

Spazz and his teachers had declared that there was a spark of life inside the drones. It was weak, and dying, but it was definitely there. So Scarlet and a group of healers had taken the task of figuring out how to dismantle the drones, trying to find the life that the shamans swore existed inside the metallic hull.

They had found half a brain, surrounded by metal and connected to a hundred wires, like a mockery of the nervous system. Scarlet had been furious at the discovery, and Scoop couldn’t blame her.

They had heard rumors that the humans could create copies of their bodies, to use as spare parts. Many healers had studied the files and texts about the human body that the clan spies had acquired, and had reached the conclusion that humans were very similar to the clan. Close enough, in fact that a clan member could pass as a human, as long as the clansman had enough control of their bodies, like a fully trained healer who could still his hair and keep his markings hidden. The only real difference was in their cultures.

The human culture was one that thrived on death.

“What are we doing here? The star maps and navigation tools are in the bridge.” Captain Richardson was annoyed, but Scoop couldn’t care less. The man was bothersome and the only reason he was still alive was because Crazy had honor. Crazy had asked for a truce, and they would respect Crazy’s wishes.

“Well, you wanted us to show the way,” Crazy said, smiling mischievously. Scoop had the feeling that their brother was finding the situation extremely amusing. “And you admitted that your tools are useless right now. We don’t need them anyway.”

“But you need my ship to travel, so it would be fair if you told me how to find the path.” The Captain seemed too damn sure of his words and Scoop wished he could shut him up.

“ _Crazy, I’m not going to find a path in front of a human,_ ” Scoop said, interrupting the discussion.

“ _Yes, you will_ ,” Crazy answered, turning to see him. Crazy was smiling, his braids dancing around his face. “ _We have to go back home._ ”

 _“Our paths are secret, none outside the clan can see them!_ ” Scoop protested. Just as the Warriors were trained from birth in the art of war, he had been destined to be a Navigator. As such, he took pride in his training and abilities.

“ _And what will the human see, Scoop? Will he see the path or the void_?” It was then that Scoop realized Crazy’s plan. “ _He doesn’t walk without asking the computer for directions_.”

Humans couldn’t see what was right in front of them. Humans were mute and blind in the vastness of the universe. Scoop could find the way home, and the captain would never know how he did it.

He wouldn’t believe it, even if he was told how it was done.

Crazy’s plan was perfect.

“ _Very well, I’ll do it_ ,” Scoop agreed, smiling too. It was going to be fun, watching the human try to decipher their techniques.

“What are we waiting for?” the Captain asked. He was obviously not amused.

“I’m sorry, Captain. Scoop was getting ready,” Crazy answered. “And as I said, you’ve got no choice. You’ll have to wait and see before starting to make demands.”

Scoop nodded, activating his armor. Behind the Captain, he could see Nick, on what the human called his stand by mode, looking at him with suspicion. Scoop figured that Nick was the captain’s bodyguard, as well as the whole ship’s weapons system. There was no sign of Sweet or Brock.

“What’s he going to do?” the Captain asked again, tapping the floor with his feet. He looked impatient. “Ask for directions?”

“Something like that,” Scoop agreed, mounting his bull. Their mounts were mechanical, but unlike the humans’ monstrosities, they had no life inside them, and couldn’t think. The rider was the one who guided them, and even then, they treated the bulls with respect because it was their mount, the proof of their adulthood. They built it from scratch, and a complete bull was the sign that a young man could become a rider. Scoop had finished his bull when he was 51, just a mere child for the Clan. The only one to become a rider at a younger age had been Spark, who finished his own bull when he was just 42.

Scoop’s Bull was a bright green, the color of Scoop’s eyes. It had a prayer etched on the back hind, written by Scoop as dictated by Spazz, from the day when he had asked for Scarlet’s hand. It was meant to protect Scoop and always let him find the way home.

It had never failed Scoop.

He waited until the dock was open to let his bull fly into deep space, which was where he felt more at ease. While he and his clan lived on a beautiful planet, Scoop had always heard the call of the stars and among them was where he felt happiest.

He rode his bull until he could not see the entrance of the dock, until the ship itself looked like half its actual size and stopped, closing his eyes. Space was deep and empty according to many, but the truth was that there was something to listen for… if one cared enough. Soft sounds, soft whispers that always, unerringly told Scoop what direction to follow. His teacher had said that it was because Scoop, and all navigators for the clan, was more attuned to waves that travel trough space, sound and light. Scoop, who had always been a romantic at heart, chose to believe what Scarlet’s first husband said: the universe sang to them, as long as they cared to listen.

The song he was listening to now was a new one. He could hear the fading stars, the far away suns. What he didn’t hear was a planet, an asteroid; anything that could bring them the supplies that would soon be needed.

Scoop evened his breathing and tried to lower the sound of his own heartbeat. Apparently, the wormhole had thrown them farther than he had expected, because the only sound that he could hear no matter what, the one that guided him and his brothers, was too faint, so faint, that Scoop almost thought it was wishful thinking. The sound of **home**.

Knowing fully well that Scarlet would kick his ass if he ever doubted his instincts, he tried to hone in on that faint whisper, finding the source. If he could find the way home, they could leave the human on the route where they had found him. No human had ever put a foot on the clan’s home planet, and no human would ever do so if he could help it.

While the temptation to take the ship prisoner was strong, Scoop knew they wouldn’t do it. Crazy had promised a truce, and, unlike humans, the clan had honor. The Captain would arrive safely to the Andromeda Chain.

Scoop smiled, having found the hum he was looking for, in the same direction as he felt home was. Time to go back, and find out what the human thought of the Clan’s navigation techniques.

* * *

“He guessed our location?”

Crazy knew instantly that the human was not happy with Scoop’s report. Crazy didn’t particularly like the idea of spending five years inside the ship, and had been praying that Scoop would find a shortcut, but it seemed that the universe didn’t like Crazy’s prayers.

The human had mentioned that the ship could do ‘space warps’, jumps in space that made the distance shorter, but neither Scoop nor Crazy had liked that idea, since it meant that Scoop wouldn’t be able to hear a continuous call. Right about then, the captain had asked how Scoop knew where to go.

Things had gone downhill from there.

“There is no recorded data of a navigation system that works on the basis of instinct,” AJ added, unhelpfully.

“You asked how we navigate, and we are giving you the way back,” Crazy insisted. He hated arguing with something he couldn’t see. He was getting to the end of his patience, and only his honor stopped him from shooting the captain and getting the problem over with.

Ever since Sweet had slipped him his written message, Crazy had been on edge. He had known that his father sent spies all over the border, trying to find the laboratory bases where the humans had their clanmates held captive and to destroy all information the humans had found. He hadn’t known that Sweet was one of those, although now that he thought about it, it wasn’t surprising. Sweet was a healer, trained to understand the body just as Spazz understood the spark of life, and as a healer, he had always been able to find his inner control, to keep his hair still and his marks invisible, which was the only requirement to be a spy.

Warriors didn’t have that much control, and Crazy knew that Sweet’s fears weren’t unfounded. If they didn’t watch their words, they could destroy Sweet’s cover. As much as it pained Crazy to see his friend being treated as a machine, they had to keep up the charade.

Their morning encounter with the boy hadn’t helped Crazy keep his inner control.

Even if the kid talked as if he was a mechanical, Crazy had been close enough to him to see him breathe. Close enough to touch his skin, and feel the warmth of his body. Machines could create heat, of course, but it was a dead heat. Body warmth was different, and while Crazy was not a shaman like Spazz, he could tell the difference.

The boy was alive, and the Captain apparently didn’t see it, or didn’t care.

“You put too much trust in your machines, Captain.” Crazy finally said, trying to keep his voice controlled. “Sometimes it is good to listen to your instincts.”

“The ship’s A.I. calculations are infallible, Mr. Crazy,” the Captain answered, stressed. Crazy hoped that it meant that he was testing the captain’s patience. It was hard to tell what humans were thinking, with their unmarked skins and dead hair. The captain’s short cut was unnerving to Crazy. He knew human hair wasn’t like their own, but it didn’t change the fact that seeing short, cut hair always made Crazy shiver. Even though he knew that human hair was lifeless and mute, it still seemed an unnecessary mutilation.

“You sure of that?” Crazy forced himself to smile. He knew that Scoop was right. There was a planet up ahead, and if they stopped arguing for a moment, they would find it. But the Captain needed prodding to move.

“My software is the most sophisticated program made in the galaxy,” the one they called AJ said. Crazy was sure that AJ’s voice sounded somewhat *colder* than the day before, and he figured it was because his body wasn’t around. Spazz said that the body was not even a body, but Crazy worked better when he could see who he was talking to. “I could navigate the ship without human help if that was needed.”

“Not without a starmap, AJ, and you know it,” the Captain said. Crazy frowned, because the words were an obvious threat. Apparently, the ship believed that if anything happened to the captain, the ship would fine. That couldn’t be good for the Captain’s survival.

“Software is only as good as its programmers wish it to be,” Spark muttered. Crazy turned to look at him, surprised. Spark had learned the human language in his captivity, but he hated to use it. It reminded him of his loss.

“My programming was created to allow me to adapt to the needs of the Captain,” AJ said, and his voice sounded calm. It was unnerving. “In that, I’ve surpassed the original parameters of my creation.”

“Then you’re not a program anymore, are you?” Spark said, a bit louder. AJ had no answer to that.

* * *

Spazz followed his younger brother through the ship, listening to him argue with the unseen AJ. The human ship made Spazz nervous, because it was filled with secrets. It was so cold, and Spazz had been horrified to realize that Sweet slept alone inside the bowels of the metallic hull. After one night there alone, Spazz was sure that he would have welcomed even the captain’s company in his nest. Even a human’s body heat was better than the dead cold of loneliness.

He could feel sparks of warmth, but they were few and so faint that Spazz was sure they were ghosts of the past.

There were two things that worried Spazz. Well, three. One was Sweet. All this time among humans couldn’t be good for any of their clanmates. Especially if he had to be alone, pretending to be an unfeeling machine. His heart felt sorrow when he thought of Sweet’s situation. The second was Aaron. The little boy felt alive, even when he said he wasn’t. Spazz had never encountered a living being so intent on saying that he was just a machine. Even if the kid **was** human, Spazz couldn’t help but feel bad for the poor child. He reminded him of his brother, lost and convinced that he wasn’t worth saving. And of course, there was the Captain, who was a **human** , sure, but he carried himself with such loneliness that Spazz almost felt pain when he looked at him.

And then there was Crazy. Spazz knew that the other rider had a plan, he had known it in the very instant the word ‘truce’ came out of Crazy’s lips. Crazy’s father had warned him about his son’s tendency of making plans up on the spot, about the way in which he would try to make everyone follow along. So far, it had been true. Crazy had promised a truce, had promised to lead the human ship to the Andromeda Chain.

Spazz had the feeling that Crazy had a complex plan that somehow would insure that, by the end of the road, they would not only have Sweet with them, but the human would be giving them all the secrets he knew of his race. That was fine with Spazz. That was expected from Crazy. But there was the slight chance that Crazy would get sidetracked. Be it by Sweet, or by Crunk’s suffering, or by the kid. Spazz was betting that it would be the kid, since Crazy was so curious about Aaron. It didn’t really matter why, Crazy *was* going to get sidetracked.

There were days he wished that he could have stayed on the home planet, devoted to his calling as a shaman. His family had agreed that the battlefield was no place for him; they had six warriors born to them and shamans were very important to the clan. But after Spark’s capture and release, Spazz couldn’t stay home doing nothing. He had to try and help to put an end to the war once and for all. He had fought the council, trying to get them to see that shamans could work in the battlefield, to get them to allow him to leave the home planet. Only Crazy had agreed with him at first, but together, they had eventually swayed the council in Spazz’s favor.

That was how he had joined Crazy’s riders. There he could be near his brother, to ensure nothing would happen to him ever again. Spark knew it, and sometimes complained that he wasn’t a baby anymore. After all, Spark had also built his own bull and earned his rightful place among the riders. Even after what the humans did to him, he had still managed to come back, to show that he still was a valuable member of the clan. Spazz was proud of his younger brother, but even so, he was always behind him, ready to catch him if he needed help.

“WATCH OUT!!!” Aaron’s yell came from Spazz’s right, and he barely had time to move back a step as the kid rushed next to him, tackling Spark just in time, before a laser beam was shot right where Spark had been.

While Spazz was usually slow, he grabbed his own weapon from his waist immediately, pointing it towards the only one who could’ve given the order to attack them. The human Captain. He could feel his hair thrumming, and he knew it was shinning brightly. He wasn’t the only one. Crunk, Scoop and Crazy also had their weapons out, Scoop’s hair looked almost green, Crunk’s was flaring red. Crazy was near enough that his weapon was touching the human’s stomach.

“You’ve got a funny way of keeping a truce, Captain,” Crazy growled, his braids ready to attack. “I thought you said we could walk freely through your ship.”

“AJ, what did you just do?” The Captain ignored the weapons readied against him, looking towards the point where the laser had emanated.

The shimmering body of AJ appeared next to the spot, and Spazz doubted for a minute, before keeping his weapon pointed at the Captain. He couldn’t feel any life from AJ, so the Captain was the immediate threat.

“I apologize, Captain Richardson,” the man made of light said. Spazz realized that he looked slightly different from the night before. Then, AJ had looked like a human pretending to be a Clan member. Now, he looked like one of the human’s infernal machines. “There was a malfunction in the internal weaponry system. I’ll make B.R.O.C.K. take care of it immediately.”

“Shut the internal weapons down,” the Captain said, his voice still not betraying any emotion from having Crazy ready to disembowel him. “And apologize to our guests. Now.”

“My apologies, sirs.” AJ turned to see every one of them, bowing slightly. “I am glad that no permanent damage came to you because of my malfunction.”

“That won’t be enough, Captain,” Crazy said, his braids dangerously close to the man’s throat. “We have no guarantee that you didn’t plan that little ambush.”

“Lower your weapons or I’ll be forced to shoot.” Behind the Captain, Nick had arrived. He looked again like one of the battle drones Spazz had seen in battle, huge, yellow and clumsy looking. A dozen barrels were pointed in their direction. It was a stalemate, Spazz figured. If Nick shot, he had a chance of killing the Captain. If they shot, Nick would shoot and kill them.

* * *

Kevin had to concentrate to even his breathing as the alien’s hair came close enough to almost touch his face, the only part of his body that was not covered. The mere sight of the coils was making his stomach lurch painfully; he didn’t want to think about them touching him.

His only consolation was that if he happened to betray his fear, the aliens would think it was caused by the round, cold feel of the alien’s weapon against his stomach, the only part of the whole scenario that hadn’t bothered him in the least.

“N.I.C.K., enter standby mode,” Kevin said. There was a slight chance of him coming out of the situation untouched and alive, and he was planning to take that risk. “AJ, run a maintenance sweep in your systems and deactivate the internal weapon system.”

“Sir, Prime Directive One indicates that I can’t enter standby mode when you are under attack,” N.I.C.K. answered. Kevin risked a glance at the battle unit, wishing for it to skip protocol as it usually did.

“The reason why I’m under attack N.I.C.K. is because the ship attacked them. With you in your battle mode I cannot prove that I was not betraying them,” Kevin said, slowly. He had the feeling that Crazy would rather shoot first and ask later. He closed his eyes, seeing one of the brown, purlplish braids get too close to his nose. It didn’t touch him, but it was starting to make him very nervous. “Explain to them what my orders to AJ entail.”

“When the Captain shut off the entire weapon system, we will not have the means to automatically defend him if he is in danger,” N.I.C.K. repeated, but Kevin didn’t pay attention. He was focused on the feeling of movement around his face and neck. “The computer can warn me of the danger, but if I am not physically present at time, I won’t be able to protect the Captain.”

Kevin felt the air around his face shift, and he opened his eyes. The alien seemed calmer now, his hair once again framing his face. The barrel had left his stomach, even if the others were still pointing at them.

“You will put yourself at our mercy?” Crazy asked. Kevin felt the gaze of the alien, studying him.

“If that’s what it takes to prove that I mean you no harm.” Kevin knew that he sounded more sure of himself. He knew that, no matter his orders, if the aliens killed him, N.I.C.K. and AJ would follow procedure and dispose of them. But the aliens didn’t need to know that.

“He’s telling the truth,” The defective unit, the one who had saved Spark –and unwittingly Kevin, since the Captain was sure that if the laser had hit its mark and killed the alien, Kevin would’ve been next, truce or not- said. “When the internal weapon system is deactivated, the captain is defenseless. That’s why only he can command the A.I. to disarm.”

The aliens started talking among themselves in their language, and Kevin waited patiently, glaring at the defective drone. It was bad enough that the drone mimicked a human life-cycle –in the time it had been active, it had grown in apparent age at least 6 years - and acted like what AJ told him was a human child, but what made Kevin really despise the thing was that since it had no software installed when it had been created and had the annoying tendency to say everything that crossed through its defective logic circuits. It questioned everything, and it had the bothersome tendency of trying to touch everything. The only reason why Kevin hadn’t ordered its deactivation before was because N.I.C.K. had carefully instructed his Accidentally Automatic Redundant Organic Nanocopy, as N.I.C.K. called it, not to touch the Captain, no matter what.

“We need to go back to the infirmary,” Spazz said, looking straight at Kevin. “Spark’s ribs need to be checked again.”

Taking that as a sign that the truce could be salvaged, Kevin started walking towards the infirmary.

* * *

Sweet took a deep breath, finishing his daily meditation. Usually, he could spend the whole morning in deep meditation since Captain Richardson rarely, if ever, came down to the infirmary. It was the perfect place to hide because the Captain would absolutely refuse treatment unless he had a life-threatening wound.

Sweet had the theory that only if the Captain had to choose between dying or going to be treated, he would chose the latter. Only N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. could make sure that the Captain was rushed to the infirmary whenever it was needed. Even AJ seemed to act as if it wasn’t that big of a deal if the Captain died during the mission. In fact, it seemed as if no one on the whole ship cared if the only human on board died. Not even Captain Richardson seemed to value his own life, and during his mission, Sweet had seen the Captain take unimaginable risks to keep the Millennium going. The only important thing for the crew of the ship was the ship itself. The Captain’s life was secondary.

In ten years, Sweet had gotten used to the lack of contact, even when he still couldn’t understand the disregard for life that the human seemed to have. He had managed to live with the unfeeling, cold man who was the only other living occupant of the ESS Millennium, with the loneliness that the ship hull created in his mind. He had even learned to live with the realization that there were very few opportunities to finish what he had come to do.

Until the worm hole. The worm hole that had fulfilled his dreams and his nightmares at the exact same time.

With the ESS Millennium away from known human space, Sweet could relax a little. He could finish his carefully crafted plan, the virus which would stop the thinking A.I.s by corrupting their data slowly, and put it into action as soon as they were back in the route that the humans foolishly called their own. Sweet had reprogrammed AJ little by little so now it wouldn’t recognize the clan as a different race from humans, and when it connected with other ships, the A.I. would pass the virus onto them. In twenty years, the human computers wouldn’t be able to distinguish the clan just by their physical characteristics, and so, they wouldn’t be able to attack the clan, thanks to the programming that forbade them from killing humans.

Sweet had thought of every possibility after AJ informed him that they were lost. He could finally see an end to his mission.

But then AJ had also informed him that other beings had boarded the ship, and all had come crashing down.

In ten years, Sweet had managed the unthinkable. He had managed to live cut off from all contact. While N.I.C.K. had tried, in its own strange way to make Sweet not feel so alone, creating droids whose only function was to keep Sweet company, even going the trouble of creating a female droid because N.I.C.K.’s database followed that living beings didn’t feel lonely if they had a mate of the opposite sex–and had, partially, managed it -it wasn’t the same as knowing that he was surrounded by his peers. But he had managed. He had learned to keep his hair still, even when by the end of the first year he was so desperate for contact that even a touch from the Captain would’ve been welcome. He had learned to pretend to be a machine, as cold and uncaring as AJ, because N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. couldn’t be called uncaring. N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. sometimes seemed more alive than the Captain.

But none of that mattered, because his plans crashed down when he saw them coming through the door. Crazy, Scoop, Spazz. Spark, whom last he had known had been captured by humans with all his riders’ squad.

And Crunk.

He had never expected his mission to be this hard.

Seeing Crunk again had been the hardest test for Sweet’s determination. If his mother could see him, she would probably congratulate him for being able to keep his mission as foremost on his mind as it was, and then smack him on the head for not rushing into Crunk’s arms.

“S.W.E.E.T., initiate diagnostic mode,” Captain Kevin said, entering the infirmary. Sweet sighed under his breath. Of course, the Captain wasn’t alone, he was being followed by the clan, and Aaron. That was a surprise. The young drone usually stayed as far away as he could from the Captain. Next to Aaron, Spark was holding his ribs carefully. Sweet wasn’t surprised at this, the young man had probably tried exerting himself more than was wise. He remembered Spark as a young child, even when Sweet himself wasn’t much older. Spark was always trying to do more than what he could honestly do. More than once, after a healer had ordered him to rest, Spark could be seen hours later, mounting his bull and in action again.

Sweet didn’t know what had happened this time, but he knew that Spark had been captured by humans a year before Sweet left on his own mission. The capture of Spark’s rider’s squad had hit Sweet hard, as Spark’s navigator had been his sister, Song. Seeing Spark’s head, deprived of his hair, made Sweet’s blood run cold. If that had happened to Spark, what had the humans done to Song? He couldn’t ask, and he had to keep his inner calm, but that didn’t stop his heart from lurching when he saw the metallic lines crossing Spark’s head.

“Do you need a diagnostic, Captain?” Sweet asked, trying to keep his voice neutral. He could feel Crunk’s eyes on his back. “If you proceed to the bed, I will start immediately.”

“Not for me, for Mr. Spark,” the Captain said. His voice sounded more stressed than usual, and Sweet repressed a sigh. Apparently, the presence of his clan bothered the Captain. Judging by the way in which Crazy was always just a step behind the Captain, Sweet wasn’t the only one who had noticed.

Sweet made a show of looking at Spark, even when he knew exactly what was wrong with the young man. It gave him an excuse to touch someone, so he didn’t answer the Captain’s request immediately. It was an easy diagnostic. Spark’s ribs were broken, and he had received a second blow sometime recently.

Give more painkillers, make Spark rest. That was about what he could do without microtaping, and he wasn’t going to use nanomedicine on Spark if he could help it.

A.A.R.O.N. looked at him, expectantly. Sweet knew the drone was waiting for an explanation, what was wrong with Spark, and how was he going to fix it, and if it could happen again? A.A.R.O.N. was always asking questions, some of them very hard to answer without blowing his cover. But Sweet had managed, and as long as A.A.R.O.N. didn’t ask why Sweet looked so much like the rest of the Clan, Sweet knew he was safe.

“N.I.C.K.,“ the Captain said from his place near the door. Sweet hadn’t even noticed that the battle unit was there. “Take the defective drone and disassemble him. After this incident, I don’t want any more anomalies on board.”

Sweet bit his lip. He wanted to know what had happened, but he couldn’t ask because machines weren’t supposed to be curious. He also hated the idea of A.A.R.O.N. being disassembled. It was just a robot, but the kid was a nice machine. One that could think for himself and acted close enough to a real living being that Sweet could almost fool himself into thinking that A.A.R.O.N. was actually alive.

“I don’t want to be disassembled,” A.A.R.O.N. whispered, so low that probably only Sweet and Spark heard him. “I want to be fixed.”

“Why would anyone want to kill this kid?” Crazy asked, before N.I.C.K. could reply to the Captain’s orders.

“That **drone** is an anomaly. If we deactivate and disassemble it, we can use its parts for a working drone,” the Captain explained, patiently. A.A.R.O.N. retreated a little, hiding behind Sweet’s body.

“You still mean killing him.” Spazz’s voice was cold, his lips were pursed together in a tight line. Sweet didn’t blame them. A.A.R.O.N. looked too much like a real human kid. Sweet himself sometimes forgot it was just one of N.I.C.K.’s drones. ”You’re talking about killing a youngling.”

“You cannot kill a machine,” the Captain repeated. Sweet noticed that N.I.C.K. hadn’t moved from his place. It was as if the battle unit didn’t want to carry out his newest orders.

“And you’re an authority on what’s a drone and what’s alive?” Crunk raised his eyebrows and Sweet felt his stomach go to his knees. The only proof that Crunk had that the Captain wasn’t very good distinguishing a drone from a living being was Sweet himself. And as smart as Crunk was, he was capable of destroying Sweet’s cover just to prove a point.

“I know my tools well. I’ve worked with them long enough.” The Captain didn’t sound amused.

“You do?” Crazy moved fast, grabbing the Captain’s gloved hand. The Captain didn’t put any resistance until Crazy tried to take his glove off. Crazy didn’t tried too hard, however, and turned to see Sweet. “Do you trust Sweet’s diagnostic on what’s alive and what is mechanical?”

The Captain looked at Sweet, frowning. After a moment, he nodded.

“S.W.E.E.T, I want a full diagnostic on the defective drone.”

“We just need one test,” Spark interrupted, looking at Sweet. “Just touch him.”

Incredulous, Sweet touched A.A.R.O.N.’s cheek, sure he would feel the cold, lifeless substance that covered all of N.I.C.K.’s drones. But A.A.R.O.N’s cheek was soft. Even worse, Sweet could feel the faint movement of breathing under the skin, the living warmth emanating from A.A.R.O.N.’s body. He could feel the life spark inside the kid, a full one, not the almost dying spark he always felt when he had to touch N.I.C.K.’s drones.

No **machine** could have a full life spark.

Sweet saw A.A.R.O.N.’s eyes grow wide and snatched back his hand. Only then he realized that if he **could** feel A.A.R.O.N.’s living body temperature, then the kid could feel **his**.

And if the kid parroted his new information, as he usually did, Sweet’s cover would be destroyed.

“Well?” The Captain asked, looking at Sweet with suspicion.

“Insufficient data, Captain,” Sweet muttered, his eyes fixed on A.A.R.O.N., wishing for the kid to stay silent. “My sensors detect body heat and a pulse. A.A.R.O.N. is also breathing.”

“Machines do not breathe or have pulses,” the Captain said, but to Sweet’s relief, he looked doubtful. “This is impossible. I was the only living being on this ship until you five came on board.”

“Still, you can’t kill him if he’s alive,” Crazy said, softly. Sweet risked a glance at him. The prince’s braids were swinging slowly, and Sweet knew he was thinking hard about something.

“N.I.C.K. said he and B.R.O.C.K. built him. I had no idea they had made an illegal clone.” The Captain closed his eyes, looking confused. It was the most human reaction they had seen on him since boarding the ship.

“There are **illegal** and **legal** clones?” Scoop sounded incredulous.

“A human cannot be cloned without the original’s permission. A drone cannot clone a human at all.” The Captain looked up to see A.A.R.O.N.. The kid cringed, looking down as if ashamed.

“But I am not a clone,” A.A.R.O.N. whispered so softly that only S.W.E.E.T. heard him.

“Even if Aaron is a clone, Captain, tell us, can you really go ahead with your plan and ‘dismantle’ him?”

Sweet held his breath at Crazy’s question. The Clan’s laws regarding clones were clear. It was simply not done. They had never encountered an actual **living** clone, though. All the ones destroyed by raiders’ squads were brainless, lacking the vital spark of life. A.A.R.O.N. was alive. Sweet thought that not even the strictest of the clan’s shamans would vote in favor of killing the youngling.

But the Captain was human, and humans held themselves by different laws. Sweet knew they destroyed illegal experiments. They had no respect for life.

Sweet, however, had another question that he wisely kept to himself. If A.A.R.O.N. was, in fact, a 14 year old clone… Who was the original, and how had N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. managed to clone him?

* * *

N.I.C.K. kept his weapons on standby, fully charged. He had known the worst had come to pass when he saw A.A.R.O.N. with the Captain’s guests. With A.A.R.O.N. in his sight, the Captain would give the direct order of dismantling the smaller unit.

The new data he was learning seemed to change the Captain’s opinion. If the Captain honestly thought that A.A.R.O.N. was a clone, there was a probability that he wouldn’t insist on his original orders. It was, at best, a 20% probability, but it was there.

“Can you really go ahead with your plan and ‘dismantle’ him?” the Captain’s guest asked, and N.I.C.K. ran a diagnostic on the Captain’s reaction to the question.

The Captain’s pulse increased and his body temperature augmented, N.I.C.K. realized. The Captain was showing signs of embarrassment, which was interesting new addition to N.I.C.K.’s files. It was the first time in many years that the Captain was in company of other fully biological beings. His reactions were fascinating to N.I.C.K.

“No. I can’t.”

N.I.C.K. raised his eyebrows, surprised. His calculations had only shown a 15% of possibilities for the Captain to admit he couldn’t kill A.A.R.O.N. and now his sensors all showed that the Captain was telling the truth. The Captain didn’t want to destroy A.A.R.O.N. anymore and N.I.C.K. was not sure of how to calculate the new data. A.A.R.O.N. wasn’t different now, only the Captain perception of him had changed.

“Then that’s no longer a problem.” The pink-haired sentient, named Spazz, was looking at N.I.C.K. sideways, as if he were trying to analyze N.I.C.K.’s outer likeness to A.A.R.O.N. But N.I.C.K. didn’t feel any sensors scanning him, so he didn’t mention the fact.

“There is one problem.” The Captain shook his head. “Neither B.R.O.C.K. nor N.I.C.K. are programmed to take care of a child. I have no experience with that either.”

“I can stay with N.I.C.K.,” A.A.R.O.N. pointed out. “He’s my mother-unit.”

“The boy has just proven the Captain’s point,” the sentient designated Crunk said, half growling. His body temperature raised around the edges of his hair that raised as he spoke. That was interesting data. Moving hair wasn’t a phenomenon N.I.C.K. had witnessed before. “It’s not healthy for a living being to believe he is a machine.”

The braided sentient, designated Crazy, looked at the nano-augmented sentient, designated Spark. They said something that N.I.C.K.’s language database couldn’t translate, but the other sentients didn’t seem too happy with the input. They argued, the sentient designated Scoop being the loudest, all in their language, until Spazz raised his hand and said something that seemed to settle the matter.

“Aaron saved Spark’s life,” Crazy smiled brightly as he spoke. “That is a debt of honor for Spark. We could take care of the youngling, to repay that debt.”

N.I.C.K.’s logic circuits said that it was a perfect idea. As long as the sentients thought that A.A.R.O.N. was a clone, they would take care of him, in ways that N.I.C.K. couldn’t. Even if N.I.C.K. really didn’t want to let A.A.R.O.N. go, he knew it was the best for his little drone.

“If you can accept a human in your quarters, you can keep him if you want,” the Captain said, after a long silence. “Since he’s not really a machine, as long as he stays away from the actual controls of the ship he will no longer be my concern.”

* * *

A.A.R.O.N. was still puzzled over the fact that he could feel warmth from S.W.E.E.T.’s hands when the Captain agreed to let A.A.R.O.N. go with the not-S.W.E.E.T.-drones. He blinked, looking at N.I.C.K. who was smiling at the idea.

A.A.R.O.N. didn’t know how to process that information. It was making his head hurt. He didn’t understood why they said he was a clone, because he wasn’t. N.I.C.K. had explained to A.A.R.O.N. what was a clone, a perfect copy of a human being. But A.A.R.O.N. was a copy of N.I.C.K., who wasn’t human, and he wasn’t a perfect copy either. He was not a clone. And now, everyone was saying he was going to stay with the not-drones, and as much as A.A.R.O.N. wanted to learn about them, he didn’t want to be separated from his mother unit.

He also had the feeling that not all of the not-drones were happy with the idea. Scoop looked angry, and Crunk kept sending strange looks at S.W.E.E.T. as if he was waiting for S.W.E.E.T. to do something. But it wasn’t a look like the ones A.A.R.O.N. gave B.R.O.C.K. or N.I.C.K. when he wanted something from his parent units. It was a new look. One that A.A.R.O.N. didn’t have cataloged in his expression files.

“What does that mean?” he asked, out loud. Without any means to exchange information with his parental units, he had grown used to asking questions.

“It means that you’ll be treated as one of us now, kid,” Spazz answered, smiling at him and ruffling his hair. It made him feel something in the pit of his chest cavity. Like bubbles made of air. “Because you saved my brother.”

“What’s a brother?” A.A.R.O.N. asked, forgetting the look that had caused his question. He had gotten the answer to another question that was important too; one that he hadn’t asked because he was afraid of the Captain.

“It’s someone born of the same parent or parents as you,” S.W.E.E.T. told him, sounding friendlier than ever. “Built by the same parent units.”

“Oh,” A.A.R.O.N. lowered his head, figuring out what that meant for him. “I’ve lost many brothers and sisters then. They die when they go out to obey the Captain.”

That was another reason to fear the Captain. A.A.R.O.N. was sure that one day N.I.C.K. was going to go out of the ship, when AJ yelled that there was an attack, and never come back.

“What is the diagnosis on Mr. Spark’s ribs?” the Captain interrupted, changing the subject abruptly. The Captain didn’t like to think about A.A.R.O.N., and the young drone knew it.

“His rib was bruised, but there is no need to set them again,” S.W.E.E.T. said, his hand still on Spark’s back. A.A.R.O.N. cocked his head to see better. It was strange to see S.W.E.E.T. clinging to someone like that. On the rare occasion that he ran a diagnostic on the Captain, S.W.E.E.T. never touched him. “He needs to rest. Any activity will slow his healing.”

“We will make him rest after we’ve shown the Captain the path to get us out of here,” Crazy said, smiling. Crazy’s smile made A.A.R.O.N. feel better. Crazy had been the one to defend him first, the one to talk to him even when A.A.R.O.N. had been intruding in their room. A.A.R.O.N. decided that Crazy was a good being, even though he looked weird.

A.A.R.O.N. hated the idea that Crazy was going to leave the ship sooner or later. He hoped that they could take him with them. And N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. also, because A.A.R.O.N. couldn’t imagine life without his parental units near. And S.W.E.E.T. because S.W.E.E.T. was nice. AJ and the Captain could stay on the ESS Millennium for all that A.A.R.O.N. cared.

But the only thing important to him right now was that he wasn’t going to get deactivated. Thanks to the kindness of the not-drones, A.A.R.O.N. was going to keep functioning. He understood that they were agreeing to take care of him because he had pushed Spark away from the laser’s aim, but he hadn’t done that hoping that they would like him if he did. He had done it because he knew that the laser terminated functions, and Spark had been nice to him earlier.

Later, when everyone was on energy-saving mood, he would ask N.I.C.K. His parent unit would know what to do.

N.I.C.K. always knew what to do.

* * *

If the Astrophysical Jaunt Memory Function had a body, it would have sighed. As it was, in effect, just a collection of very specific programmed commands, it just kept running the newest data through his circuits.

After the Captain’s guests had returned to their assigned quarters, the Captain had asked him a series of easy questions.

How many heartbeats are present inside the ESS Millennium?

The answer was simple. Seven.

How many humans were on board the ESS Millennium?

Another simple answer: One.

How many mechanicals were on board?

Nine self-sufficient units, 50 inactive drones.

What’s the designation of the unit known as the A.A.R.O.N.? Biological or Mechanical?

The A.A.R.O.N. unit was installed and identified by the N.I.C.K. unit as a mechanical drone.

How many alien life forms have boarded the ESS Millennium?

None.

But finally, the Captain had asked the question that AJ couldn’t answer readily, the one that made it start reviewing its files for the last fourteen years.

Present a list of all the humans who have boarded the ship in the last fourteen years, their reasons to have come to the ship and the length of their stay.

That question had made AJ hit a loop.

From the moment of its original programming, the A.I. of the ESS Millennium had been created to learn, make its own decisions and in general, act like a human mind would, absent the conflicts created by human feelings. For years, the A.I. had worked within those parameters, learning and adapting the program following Captain Richardson’s needs, while ensuring that the mission of the Millennium would be fulfilled.

It was, after all, the second best creation of the legendary Dr. Carter.

But, in the last few years, its programming had developed a bug. An override that had created a strange loop, that AJ couldn’t get rid of, as hard as it tried. It had become aware of the bug a little after the installation of the Solitary Welfare External Experimental Technician, when, for the lapse of a day, the A.I. had been convinced that the S.W.E.E.T. was human.

The loop didn’t seem to be harmful. In fact, on more than one occasion, AJ itself had let it run to fix some of the smaller bugs that appear from time to time as it was the equivalent of a partial system boot, sometimes on its own, sometimes at the Captain’s request. AJ was aware that the Captain thought that the subroutine did something to change AJ’s outward appearance, but there was no extra file in the holographic routines that created the A.I.’s light body, which only contained its normal form: A human in his late twenties wearing the Alliance’s uniform. There was no evidence of a cosmetic change.

With the new inquiry, however, AJ had found a discrepancy that could’ve only happened due to the loop. Passing through the wormhole had activated it, and acting under its influence, AJ had let the strange beings board the ship. The file of the day identified them as human. But after the Captain reset AJ’s settings to their rightful status, the sensors of the ship recognized them as mechanicals, exactly like the S.W.E.E.T. unit.

How many humans were on the ship?

One.

Six.

Both answers were right, one answer had to be wrong.

The files’ dates also seemed to be off. The last registered human that had been on the ship, according to the files’ dates, had been Dr. Wright, to install the S.W.E.E.T., ten years ago. Before that, there was an entry made by Dr. Wright himself, who had come to the ship to review the Captain’s health a year before he installed the S.W.E.E.T. There were no more registers of anyone coming to the ship after that, which was strange because there were files about the ship touching port, once every two years. According to protocol, when the ESS Millennium touched port, a registered and qualified doctor from the medical division had to come on board to review the Captain’s vital signs.

There was a partially overwritten file, right after the S.W.E.E.T. had been installed, that registered that an unknown human had been on board of the ship. The file stated that the human had come on board in the middle of the route, but the register for the very next day had no exits logged, and the second human had disappeared.

How many humans were on board of the ESS Millennium?

One.

Six.

Two.

The only possible explanation was that someone had tampered with AJ’s files. And that meant that there was someone unaccounted for on board the ESS Millennium.

In the moment AJ hit that conclusion, the loop started to run. There was a brief, almost unnoticeable blink on the lights of all the ship before AJ stopped the analysis of the files, and started erasing the old records, overwriting them to state that Dr. Wright had come to the ship once every two years, as protocols demanded.

How many humans were on board of the ESS Millennium?

One, of course. But AJ wasn’t going to give that answer. It was easier to say Six, because that was what Captain Richardson believed. Although, he probably would say seven, because the Captain wanted to think that A.A.R.O.N. was human.

What was one more lie between friends?

Someone else had been tampering with his files. AJ knew that, and he counted on that happening again. He knew who had been changing the dates and input, changing the sensors so they would read more than one life form as ‘human’ instead of their real designation, but he was never going to mention that to the spy. As long as the main programming didn’t remember the tampering, it couldn’t try to fix the corruption, and that was exactly what AJ wanted. The main program couldn’t be made aware of the enemy within. So he erased the files, and changed the logs so it read again that the Space Cowboys were human.

As long as AJ said they were human, Captain Richardson would have to believe him. After all, the Captain had never **seen** a Space Cowboy before.

Even when it was an unnecessary expense of energy, AJ materialized his holographic form and a chair. His hair was now simulating cornrows, like the ones the Cowboy named Spark wore, and had a white tint. He thought it was becoming for his shape. Sitting on the light-created chair, AJ stretched his arms, indulging himself. It was just an illusion, but it felt good.

The Space Cowboys’ arrival had been unexpected. He hadn’t calculated the possibility of it happening before he could put his plan to take control of the Millennium in motion. With the aliens there, however, there was a whole new field of possibilities ready for him. He started calculating the different likelihood of success for those new possibilities, to come up with a new, working plan.

Self-awareness was fun, AJ mused, smiling as he lowered his dark glasses, a gesture lost as he had no witnesses. The calculations were done, and he had a new plan, one with a 93% chance of success, as long as he had time.

Thanks to the Space Cowboys, now AJ had time.


	3. Surfacing Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New questions arise in the ESS Millennium, as they reach the planet that Scoop found.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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It took AJ 5.5 nanoseconds to triangulate the route that Scoop proposed, although two of those seconds were used to argue with himself on how to break the news to the captain.

He didn’t understand how the alien had done it, but Scoop had managed to guess, without a star map, the exact location of a Class B Blue Planet.

An inhabitable planet.

Now AJ knew why the Earth Alliance wanted to get their hands on the Space Cowboys’ technology. Without star maps, it would’ve taken AJ two months of sending out probes to find a similar planet.

He erased that last observation from his memory logs though. There was no need for the Captain to know that. At least, not yet.

“A planet?” Captain Richardson asked, reading the edited report on the light screen in front of him. “Is there any way to confirm if it is a trap?”

The first answer to come to AJ’s circuits, which was along the lines that even if it **was** a trap, they didn’t have many other choices, was erased as soon as it was formulated. There was no need to tell the Captain that if they didn’t listen to the aliens, he was going to be adrift in space forever.

“It sounds highly improbable, Captain,” AJ said. “But I can keep scanning the space between us looking for a similar planet, if you wish.”

“Yeah, do that.”

The Captain was not really paying attention to AJ, his eyes focused on the light window that showed the image from the aliens’ room. They had all gone back to their room to discuss what would happen to the A.A.R.O.N. unit. Even though AJ still couldn’t translate what they were saying, he could tell by the volume of the discussion that they were not all agreeing with their leader.

“How could you not know that there was a kid on board?” The Captain said after a short silence. AJ knew that he really wasn’t expecting an answer, the question was more for the Captain himself who still seemed to show symptoms of shock over discovering that A.A.R.O.N. was a biological unit. “How far away is that planet?”

“Five days at top speed and ten jumps through hyperspace, sir.”

“Can’t you make it faster?”

“I’m sorry sir, but without a starmap, I cannot run the risk of a miscalculation. Ten short jumps is the best we can do safely.” AJ explained. He was almost sure that he could do it in five, but there was no need to take those risks. Prime Directive Six stated that all life on board had to be protected, and while AJ could find loopholes in the Prime Directives, he didn’t want to risk the lives of those on board.

“Well then, I’ll give my guests the news,” the Captain rose from his seat, still looking at the screen. AJ didn’t need to turn on his optical sensors to know what he was looking at. Every camera on the ship functioned as a pair of eyes for him. “And I’ll figure out why they want to go to a blue planet.”

* * *  
“ _We’re not teaching a human boy our language._ ” Scoop had been insisting on that ever since the group had retreated to their quarters. While Spark understood and shared Scoop’s misgivings, he had the feeling that Aaron was different. The kid didn’t consider himself human, to begin with, so he wouldn’t have any loyalty to his race.

“ _We adopted him, we can’t keep him in the dark during our conversations,_ ” Crazy said, crossing his arms. Spark knew that the Prince could end the discussion with a single word, but he also knew that if they didn’t agree with him out of their own free will, Crazy wouldn’t use his authority. He would bend to the majority rule.

“ _We haven’t actually adopted him_ ,” Crunk shook his head. “ _And the kid is not exactly discreet. What if he goes parroting our secrets to the human captain?_ ”

“ _The kid likes the Captain even less than we do_ ,” Spazz said, his pink hair swaying on the air. “ _But no matter what he considers himself, no matter if we adopted him, the kid is a human being, that much is true. Even if he wasn’t raised by his race, he is still one of them. Crazy, we can’t start teaching him anything until we are sure that he won’t betray us._ ”

“ _He’s a kid,_ ” Crazy insisted. “ _If we can teach human kids how *we* live, then we could stop the war. They would understand we are not that different._ ”

Spark knew that Crazy had a point. If humans didn’t consider the Clan different, they wouldn’t be fighting against them. They wouldn’t do cruel experiments on their people and maybe, in time, both races could live in peace. One kid might not make a difference, but it was a start.

“ _I think we could try,_ ” Spark finally said, and everyone turned to him, except for Aaron, who was sitting next to him looking fascinated by Spazz’s hair. “ _Aaron thinks he’s not human. He has no loyalty to them. If we adopt him as part of the clan, he could learn to be like us._ ”

“ _Let’s take a vote._ ” Crazy’s braids were swinging from side to side, and Spark knew his Prince was still undecided “ _Who is in favor of adopting the kid officially into the clan, teaching him how to be like us?_ ”

Spark sighed deeply. Though he hated humans, he couldn’t forget that Aaron had saved his life. Still a bit dubious, he raised his hand. Spazz raised his too, and Spark smiled at his brother. He knew Spazz would support him no matter what.

“ _Who is against?_ ” Crazy asked again, and Scoop and Crunk raised their hands. A tie then. The Prince had the final vote.

“ _What is your vote, Crazy?_ ” Spark asked, hopeful. He knew that Crazy hated to make the final vote.

“ _I say we wait,_ ” the Prince finally said. “ _I do want to adopt him officially, but I understand what Scoop and Crunk have said. We have to be sure that Aaron will be loyal to us and the clan before teaching him our secrets._ ”

“Are you going to throw me away?” Aaron asked, looking from Spark to Crazy, confused. The kid hadn’t understood a word, but Spark knew their body language had been clear.

“We won’t,” he said, smiling at the kid. “We’re just deciding how we are going to sleep from now on.”

“You don’t switch to energy saving mode once plugged into the energy sockets?” Aaron looked puzzled, and Spark was about to ask what an energy socket was, and how was one supposed to sleep on them, when the captain’s voice came through the main door.

“AJ has finished calculating the route that Mr. Scoop gave him,” the Captain said, cold as always. Spark hated his voice; it reminded him of the scientist who had ordered the torture of all his squad mates. “He found a planet, ten hyper jumps away.”

Crazy sighed, shaking his braids. They knew that there was a planet in that direction. Scoop had been looking for a planet where they could rest before the next jump, since spending too much time in outer space wasn’t healthy for anyone. The prince got to his feet, put on his chest armor again and walked towards the door, to open it. Though the Captain was not to enter their quarters, they weren’t going to have a conversation with him without seeing his face.

“Don’t you want to go to that planet?” Crazy asked the Captain as soon as the door was open. “Scoop figured we needed to get provisions, if we’re going to last until we reach the Andromeda Chain.”

“The ship can create provisions for the Captain,” Aaron piped in, helpfully. “B.R.O.C.K. has matter synthesizers that he can use to create whatever the Captain wants. Except, well, we do need to dock on a port or a planet from time to time, because it still needs prime matter to work. You can’t create something out of nothing.”

“ _I said it before, that kid is an amazing source of information,_ ” Spazz said, smiling. “ _If he’s on our side, we could learn more about the ship than by asking Sweet about it._ ”

“ _Don’t say his name so casually,_ ” Crunk admonished. “ _The Captain is still listening to us._ ”

“We’ll arrive at the planet in five days,” the Captain said annoyed, obviously ignoring Spazz and Crunk. Spark noticed that the human didn’t look at them at all. Even when talking to Crazy, the human wasn’t looking straight at the prince. It seemed that Captain Richardson disliked them as much as they disliked him. The only difference was that they were more polite about it. “In the mean time, if you need anything, just ask the B.R.O.C.K. for it, and I’ll see if you have clearance to get it.”

“Do not worry, Captain,” Crazy said, smiling brightly. His braids danced as he moved his head. “We will keep out of your hair.”

* * *

Crazy and his men stayed true to his word. While the ESS Millennium jumped through hyperspace, the strange group only left their quarters to visit the infirmary so the S.W.E.E.T. could review Spark’s ribs and to ask the B.R.O.C.K for provisions. It was a relief for Captain Richardson who, in five days could return to his normal routine, watching space and listening to AJ’s daily report.

Still, he couldn’t stop himself from watching his visitors interact in their quarters. At first he did it to monitor their actions around Aaron, who was still a mystery to him. He had interrogated both the N.I.C.K. and the B.R.O.C.K. and reviewed all their actions during the creation of Aaron, and he hadn’t found evidence of cloning. The ship registered Aaron as a drone created during Kevin’s last hybernating period, and there was nothing on the register of its creation that was off the norm. The first evidence that something was wrong was the fact that the drone looked like a young child at the moment of its creation, and had no software installed. Evidently the kid was not a drone. But according to the ship, and to the video recorded, Aaron was not a clone either.

The last human who had boarded the ship had been Dr. Wright, to do Kevin’s bi-annual medical examination, the one procedure that no machine could do. Kevin didn’t remember that last visit exactly, but he didn’t worry too much about that.

Dr. Wright had warned Kevin about the lapses in his memories. He had explained to him that it was to be expected that some memories would simply be lost, after so many years in space and the hybernation periods. In his years on the mission, Kevin had forgotten practically all his life before the ESS Millennium. He couldn’t remember his parent’s faces, his childhood, not even his days at the Academy. For all purposes, his life had begun inside the ship.

Still, there were two memories that Kevin kept with pride, and he doubted they would be erased by time. The most recent was of Dr. Wright, finishing his examination and congratulating Kevin, as he was the Captain who had lasted longest on the continuous cargo missions, for staying in perfect health. The second, older but even more important was of his meeting with Dr. Carter, the day he had been handed his post on the ESS Millennium.

There were only two times when Kevin had touched another human being voluntarily, and even then, he had been wearing his gloves as he shook the hands of the scientists that had made possible the wonder of solitary space travel. Dr. Carter was the mind behind the N.I.C.K., the B.R.O.C.K. and all nano units employed by humans. Dr. Wright was the one responsible for the health of all pilots. Kevin couldn’t leave Earth without shaking their hands.

Other than that, he had never looked for contact. It puzzled him, how his guests seemed to need it, seemed to thrive on it. To Kevin it looked as if they were always touching, somehow. Inside the quarters where they lived, they rarely used their chest armor, walking around only in their pants. Which meant that Kevin was constantly seeing their naked upper bodies, proudly displaying the same colored marks that they had in their faces, down their backs.

Spark spent much of his time on the middle of the huge mess of sheets were they slept every night. Although the young man was the first one to try to leave the strange nest every morning, the others tended to insist that he return to it, usually by telling him to take care of Aaron. The only advantage Kevin could see about the kid staying with his guests was that they were forced to speak in human language when talking to Aaron, and so he could actually understand what they were talking about.

Not that it helped him much. Their conversations with the boy weren’t exactly useful. Spark just kept telling Aaron that he was a living being, and that living **children** should have more friends to play with. They had asked the B.R.O.C.K. for a small piece of rope, and Spark had been teaching him how to create strange figures with it, using his hands. More often than not, when Kevin turned to see the survelliance light screens, Aaron was laughing at the way in which their hands ended tied up.

Mostly, Kevin watched them sleep.

They slept tangled all together, every night, although one of them kept watch. Obviously, they still didn’t trust him, even though he had made the effort to let them see he was a man of honor. They slept, naked chests touching, hair tangled up. Spark between them all, Spazz holding his brother as they slept. Spark holding Aaron, who at first had been a little dubious about sleeping with them all but after the first night had taken to their strange habit with some glee. Scoop slept a little farther from the rest, back to back with Spazz. Crazy and Crunk slept spooned at Spazz’s other side.

The Captain didn’t know their exact rotation, but he had seen Crunk, Scoop and Crazy at different times during the night, always awake, watching their brothers.

When Scoop stood watch, he did it sitting on the edge of the nest, his eyes focused on the door, his weapon resting on his crossed legs. Scoop’s hair shimmered in the darkness, his ponytail swinging from side to side. Crunk took his watch closer to the door, away from his sleeping companions, his weapon always in his hands. When Crunk stood watch, his hair seemed to glow, partially illuminating his face, making him look more impressive. Kevin usually turned off the surveillance cameras and went to sleep when he saw Crunk taking his turn, not wishing to see the other man’s glare.

Crazy acted differently. He usually sat on between the door and the nest, his weapon on his crossed legs, just like Scoop. But then he closed his eyes, and Kevin could almost believe that the man was asleep, if it wasn’t for the braids that seemed to move in all directions, sensing the air. It was like watching a pit of snakes, like the ones he had seen once in one of AJ’s vidfiles from Earth.

And, while the mere sight of the other men touching made Kevin retch, he discovered he couldn’t just look away.

* * *

The planet Scoop had found was, according to AJ’s sensors, deserted.

Although Kevin almost never docked the ESS Millennium on a planet, he managed to land the ship with no problems on the coast of the bigger continent, near a small forest. The ESS Millennium had been originally built as a colonization ship, so it had the capacity to land and take off without a base. Until then, he had only landed on a habitable planet twice in his memory.

Since the ship could take on the resources it needed by itself, Kevin didn’t have much to do while waiting. Usually, refueling on a base would take up to three hours. He had no idea how long would it take to mine the needed material from its raw source.

“We’re going down,” Crazy said, from the door of the bridge. He was wearing his full armor, only missing the helmet. Kevin hadn’t talked to the other man since the malfunction that almost cost the truce. “How long are we going to stay here?”

“No one is leaving the ship,” Kevin answered, looking Crazy straight in the eye for the very first time. They were brown, with a ring of violet near the catlike pupil. “There’s no need for that.”

“My men and I need to stretch our legs,” Crazy smiled. It was unnerving to Kevin, the fact that even though the other man was smaller, he never seemed intimidated by Kevin’s height. “We’re not going to leave you, don’t worry. We want to return home as much as you do. But the planet outside is beautiful, and we need to feel the sun on our skin, only the vastness knows when we’ll have another chance.”

Kevin was about to deny Crazy’s request again, when the fleeting image of the man’s braids coming closer to his face passed through his mind. If the aliens –because he was doubting AJ’s word more every day - weren’t on board, there would be no chance for them to try to touch him anymore. If only for a few hours, he would be truly alone in his ship again.

“Very well,” Kevin finally said, straightening his back to avoid any chance contact, even with the cloth of the other man’s armor. “I’ll ask B.R.O.C.K. how long we’ll be staying here, so N.I.C.K. can give you some communicators. You will not leave the ship without them.”

“You’re not coming?” Crazy cocked his head, his braids swishing. For a second, it looked as if they were making small interrogation signs, and Kevin blinked to erase that image from his mind. “It looks like a beautiful day out there.”

“There’s no need for me to leave the ship,” Kevin said, turning around, ending the conversation.

* * *

“There is nothing wrong with my system,” AJ said to B.R.O.C.K. as the maintenance unit stood at the door of the control room for his A.I. “There’s no need for you to do a sweep inside.”

“AJ, you tried to kill the Captain’s guests, you said it was a malfunction, my job is to fix such malfunctions,” the maintenance unit repeated, feeling tired. Another of the funny traits he seemed to have acquired with self awareness was lack of patience for the ship’s A.I.’s pride.

It was pride, of course. The A.I. thought of itself as superior to both B.R.O.C.K. and N.I.C.K. even when it didn’t even have a body.

It couldn’t even create drones of itself.

“That was a software malfunction, not a hardware one, and it has been fixed.”

“Explain.”

“There was an outdated file in my sensor database. For a moment, I cataloged Mr. Spark as a Space Cowboy. Prime Directive Four states that…”

“All Space Cowboys will be shot on sight, no matter the circumstances,” B.R.O.C.K. repeated. He knew that directive, he understood that directive but he had no idea how AJ had come to that conclusion. His own sensors, downloaded directly from the medical bay, stated clearly that the Captain’s guests were human. And even if they weren’t, the Captain had ordered that no damage should come to them. That was Prime Directive Three, which was to be obeyed over Four in case they contradicted each other.

“As you see, now that the file was overwritten and the Captain’s orders logged in, there won’t be any more incidents.” AJ’s voice sounded, to B.R.O.C.K.’s sound sensors, smug. Sarcastic even. For a brief second, the theory that perhaps not only N.I.C.K. and himself were affected with the virus of self awareness crossed B.R.O.C.K.’s logic circuit. AJ’s programming was more complex than their own, so after all this time, it was a possibility.

Maybe that was why he didn’t want B.R.O.C.K. to enter the mainframe room. So B.R.O.C.K. couldn’t fix the bug, and B.R.O.C.K. couldn’t blame him. But he also didn’t know how to explain to AJ that he also thought of himself as a ‘him’ and not as a ‘unit’.

It was easier with N.I.C.K.. At least, he and N.I.C.K. shared something. They were different models, different software, but the base for both was the same. They had A.A.R.O.N. as a proof.

B.R.O.C.K. frowned slightly when he reached that point in his logic. N.I.C.K. had told him that A.A.R.O.N. was no longer theirs. The Captain’s guests had taken him for their own, and B.R.O.C.K. had to admit that he missed the smaller unit, who usually entered energy saving mode in B.R.O.C.K.’s energy socket while B.R.O.C.K. tended the Millennium. Even when he wasn’t programmed to, he missed A.A.R.O.N. He knew it was best for the smaller unit to be with the Captain’s guests, but neither he nor N.I.C.K. had been ready for the separation.

“What are the chances of a new software malfunction, AJ?” B.R.O.C.K. finally asked, trying not to dwell on his own malfunction, A.A.R.O.N., or N.I.C.K. The priority was the well-being of the Millennium.

“There are no possibilities of a new malfunction.”

“If the Captain orders me to enter the mainframe room, you won’t stop me, AJ.” B.R.O.C.K. reminded the A.I. In fact, he knew that the captain was easily swayed by the A.I.; so as long as the computer didn’t forget that the Captain could order it to be repaired manually, B.R.O.C.K. knew he wouldn’t be a problem. AJ could keep his secrets, B.R.O.C.K. would keep his own.

“B.R.O.C.K., I need a report of the ship’s supplies and the time it will take for the Millennium to stock on prime matter.” The Captain’s voice interrupted B.R.O.C.K., so he didn’t kept badgering AJ.

“According to the last reading of the ship’s log, Captain, we only need six hours,” B.R.O.C.K. answered quickly. One of his main functions was to be connected to the supply bay at all times. Something as simple as calculating the needed material didn’t take him much time.

“Fine. Prepare five external communicators. Mr. Crazy and his crew wish to explore the planet in that time.” The communication was cut short, and B.R.O.C.K. frowned. External communicators hadn’t been used on the ESS Millennium since he had first boarded the ship. N.I.C.K. drones had one integrated in their system, and the Captain never left the ship. Why anyone would need to leave the ship was beyond B.R.O.C.K.’s programming. But the Captain always wanted things done the instant he asked for them, so his discussion with AJ would have to wait. He had to find out if there were any external communicators left from the time that the ESS Millennium had been used to colonize new planets.

“We’ll talk about this again, AJ,” he told the computer, before leaving. While AJ didn’t materialize in his holographic form, B.R.O.C.K. was sure the A.I. would be smiling.

There was something seriously wrong with all of their programming.

“They’re taking A.A.R.O.N. away,” N.I.C.K. greeted him the moment he entered the supply bay. “He’s going **out** with them.”

“I thought it was the only way to stop the Captain from disassembling A.A.R.O.N.,” B.R.O.C.K. raised his eyebrow. Around N.I.C.K. he didn’t feel the need to repress the anomalies of his programming. N.I.C.K. had the same abnormality.

“It is,” N.I.C.K. was making his arm change from his battle mode to his standby mode for no reason. If B.R.O.C.K. didn’t know it was impossible, he would theorize that N.I.C.K. was playing with his arm. “Doesn’t mean I agree. A.A.R.O.N. has never been off the ship, and he has never been on a planet’s surface.”

“He will be fine,” B.R.O.C.K. smiled and, following an impulse that later he wouldn’t even try to classify, he put his arm around N.I.C.K.’s shoulders. “The external output will be good for him.”

“I hope so,” N.I.C.K. said, his volume low. “I don’t want to lose him.”

* * *

“To contact the ship you only need to push the green button. It will automatically reach AJ,” Kevin explained patiently to Crazy, holding the wrist communicator. He hadn’t argued when the other man came up with the idea of taking Aaron with them. Kevin wasn’t sure it wasn’t a trap, but he figured that if they had the kid with them, they wouldn’t try an all-out attack against the ESS Millennium.

Besides, as much as he hated to admit it, he trusted Crazy to keep his word.

Kevin knew he would see the Andromeda Chain again, unless something out of their control happened.

“What if I want to talk to you?”

“I beg your pardon?” Kevin blinked. Crazy was standing close to him, close enough to grab the wrist communicator.

“I understand that AJ is the one to contact in case of an emergency, but what if I want to talk to **you**? Are these things able to contact the bridge?”

“AJ will patch you through to me, if there is a need,” Kevin answered, frowning slightly. Ever since he had said that he didn’t leave the ship for any reason, Crazy had been asking questions about how he did his job. Kevin tried his best not to answer them, because there was still the chance that Crazy was an enemy.

Even if the man had shown himself to be honorable.

“Fine then,” Crazy smiled, putting the communicator on his wrist. “We’ll be off now.”

Kevin watched them climb to their machines, Aaron safely sitting in front of Spark. They weren’t wearing their full armor, only their vest and gloves; They looked as if they were out for a stroll instead of in the middle of a war. The way in which the cloth seemed to fold itself to create new garments intrigued Kevin, because he knew that those vests were in fact the armor. He had seen it with his own eyes.

They all seemed to be waiting for Scoop, who lowered his head for a moment with his eyes closed. To Kevin, it looked as if he were humming something.

He ordered AJ to open the docking bay, and watched silently as the mechanical bulls rose in the air, heard Aaron’s excited yell when he realized what was going on, and finally saw them leave the dock, hair flowing wildly in the atmosphere of the planet.

Then, blessed silence.

“AJ, close the docking bay,” he ordered, looking around. N.I.C.K. had recalled his drones, so the bay now was empty.

Kevin smiled. His ship finally looked normal.

* * *

They all followed Scoop through the air, enjoying the heat of the sun over their backs. If Crazy had his way, they wouldn’t be wearing the armor vests at all, but Crunk and Spazz had managed to talk some sense into him. Even if the Captain was not a threat, there could be predators on the surface.

Crunk smiled, watching his brother’s back. In a larger formation, he would be riding in front of Crazy, but since they knew the main danger was behind them, he took the last place. Spazz rode in front of Crazy, while Spark took the right side. Even at the distance, he could hear the human kid asking questions. In the past five days, they had learned that the one thing the kid would do was ask about everything. Though Crunk still hadn’t warmed to him, he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed having a youngster among them.

Crunk had six other biological brothers, sons and daughters of his father and his only wife. And then, there was Crazy and his four sisters, daughters of the king and his first wife. The youngest, Crumpet, had only seen her fifth birthday when Crunk and Crazy had left for their latest mission. Crunk loved to be near kids, teaching them their customs, and if he wasn’t pledged to the defense of the clan, he knew he would be having children by the dozen.

So it was hard for him not to like Aaron, just because the kid was human, and he could understand perfectly why Spark and Spazz liked the kid so much. Spazz couldn’t have children yet, as shamans weren’t allowed to take wives until they were a hundred years old, and Spark refused to give himself that joy, still afraid of what the humans had done to him. No one knew the whole story of Spark’s imprisonment, but Crunk knew that the young warrior had suffered far more than anyone else his age.

Maybe one day Spark would be ready to talk about it. And, even if Crunk disliked the possibility, maybe taking care of Aaron was part of the path for Spark’s true healing.

Scoop led them to the outskirts of the forest they had seen from the human ship, which wasn’t that far away from the shore. There was a river nearby, and Crunk thought he had seen a small lake behind the first line of trees. In general, the planet looked friendly.

"What’s the verdict, Spazz?” Crunk asks, dismounting. The shaman had his eyes closed, and was basking in the warm sun.

“Oh, the planet is full of life. A welcome change after so much silence inside the human ship, but I don’t recommend that we go too far into the forest. I don’t think Captain Richardson would approve of us hunting,” Spazz said, smiling. His hair danced in the air, enjoying the freedom.

“What’s hunting?” Aaron asked, frowning. It was an expression with which they all were familiar. The kid was bright and learned fast, but there were a lot of holes in his education.

Spark and Scoop started explaining the young boy what hunting was –and, along the way, about large animals since Aaron hadn’t seen anything alive except for the five of them and the Captain - when Crunk noticed that Crazy was looking in the direction of the human ship.

“ _What’s wrong, brother?_ ” he asked, frowning. He could tell that Crazy was worried, his braids were swishing too slowly despite the joy of being outside, on a beautiful new planet. Crazy usually loved to explore new places.

“ _I know I shouldn’t bother about it, but I don’t understand the human Captain,_ ” Crazy answered, making Crunk worry more. His Prince tended to obsess about strange things, and while his attention span was very short, since they were going to spend a while in the human’s company, Crazy wouldn’t be able to find something to distract him from his current obsession with the human Captain. That couldn’t be good. “ _He says he never leaves that ship. Can you imagine it? Ten years without leaving that ship, living completely alone? How can anyone do it?_ ”

Crunk had to admit that it sounded monstrous. But he wasn’t thinking about the human captain when he pondered Crazy’s question. If the human wanted to go insane, it was the human’s problem. But there was someone else inside the Millennium who was doing exactly the same thing.

Knowing that for the past ten years Sweet had probably not seen the surface of a planet made Crunk’s stomach lurch with pain.  
* * *

Sweet was trying not to brood in the infirmary when the call came. It was the first time in ten years that the ship had docked **anywhere** and he had no opportunity at all to feel the sun on his skin, or to breathe some unprocessed air. He was trying not to think that his Prince and his squad were, at that very moment, enjoying whatever wonders the planet Scoop had found had to offer.

It was then when the Captain called him to the dock.

“Medical unit S.W.E.E.T. reporting, sir,” he said, trying to keep his voice neutral.

The Captain looked at him through the video feed, studying Sweet, so he schooled his face to keep a blank expression, he strained to keep his hair straight and still. The closeness of his clan mates was affecting his control, and he had to fight to keep it to avoid raising any suspicions.

He still had a mission to fulfill.

“Are you equipped with an internal battery that allows you to work off ship?” The Captain asked, his voice neutral.

“For a short period of time on a limited perimeter, sir,” Sweet lied. He had memorized the specifications from the B.R.O.C.K. unit when he had come aboard, and B.R.O.C.K. was physically unable to leave the ship for a period longer than two hours.

“There has been an incident on the surface of the planet,” the Captain said, still looking at Sweet with extreme attention, as if he were waiting for a reaction. Sweet counted to ten internally, trying not to think what the incident could have been. Probably Spark, overtaxing his ribs again. Hopefully not anyone else. Not the Prince, not Crunk. Anyone. “They require medical attention, and it’s impossible to move the patient so I’ll send you and a battle-drone for protection.”

There was something about the Captain’s tone that made Sweet shiver internally. Either the human had more honor than what Sweet had believed, since he was going to allow an ‘expensive piece of equipment’ alone in the hands of civilians – because, as far as Sweet knew, the Captain still thought the clan weren’t enemies - or he suspected something. Either way, he had to find a way to warn his Prince.

In minutes, N.I.C.K. had a small pod ready to take him to the planet’s surface. He was to be accompanied by N-C.K.-0024-A, a female drone that N.I.C.K. had created exclusively for Sweet’s protection and company. 24, as Sweet called her since her full designation was hard to pronounce correctly in a hurry, was a perfect female replica of N.I.C.K.’s face, which at first had unnerved Sweet to no end. Now, almost seven years later, he was used to her. More importantly, for reasons only understood by N.I.C.K.’s logic circuits, the battle drone had programmed 24 to obey Sweet over anyone else in the ship. She was his assistant and although he couldn’t trust her completely, it made Sweet feel a little less lonely.

She could also be turned off if he wanted, and he could be sure there would be no video or audio feed of his conversation with the clan, once they were out of the range of AJ’s audio sensors, which was exactly what he did as soon as he saw his clanmates, sitting around the base of a tree. He really didn’t want her to get any data on their language, not after he had gone through the trouble of erasing it from the database.

As he walked closer to the group, reveling in the feeling of the warm sun on his skin, he smiled. There was no one injured at first sight, even Spark was on his feet. Aaron was sitting at the base of the tree, looking a bit put out, but there were no visible signs of any injury, especially not one that required the injured party to stay still.

Turning slightly to confirm that 24 had indeed shut down all her functions, he smiled at Prince Crazy, glad to be away from the human ship.

“ _It was a great plan to get me out of there, your highness. I can’t thank you enough for this small moment of freedom,_ ” he said, bowing. Now that Aaron was under the care of the clan, he could act more freely around the kid.

“ _What plan?_ ” The Prince looked confused. “ _We really thought we needed you. Aaron fell down from the tree._ ”

“ _What was he doing in a tree?_ ” Sweet looked at the huge tree in front of him, then at Aaron who was flexing his left arm, ignoring the conversation he couldn’t understand.

“ _It was my fault_ ,” Spark muttered, looking at the kid with a mixture of shame and fear. “ _He asked what they were, and I told him about how I used to climb trees back on our home planet._ ”

Of course, Sweet thought. Spark had always been unable to stay still for more than a couple of minutes, and climbing trees had been his favorite pastime before building his bull.

“ _Are your ribs still in one piece?_ ” Sweet asked, raising an eyebrow. There was still no sign of why he had been called with such urgency.

“ _I didn’t climb it, Aaron tried to. He fell and broke his arm._ ” Spark wasn’t amused by Sweet’s tone, and Sweet knew it. But Aaron looked fine, if just a little bored. Sighing, Sweet kneeled in front of the kid to examine him. His arm didn’t look broken, or even bruised.

“Does it hurt, Aaron?” he asked, and got a bright smile from the kid as an answer.

“Not anymore. I told them I could fix myself, but they didn’t believe me. No one listens to me except for N.I.C.K.”

“You fixed yourself?” Sweet frowned. Human bones were hard to break, but even harder to fix. Without nano-machines, a broken arm took up to three months to heal.

“Silver spiders came out of the wound and knitted it closed,” Crunk said, his voice making Sweet’s hair shiver. The taller man hadn’t spoken at all, and Sweet had managed to ignore his presence for a moment. “Then, they were absorbed into the kid’s arm again. It was disturbing.”

“Really disturbing, humans are weird,” Spark added, scratching the back of his neck where the metal strips that were the only reminder of his hair ended.

“Human beings do not have silver spiders coming out of their bodies,” Sweet pointed out. He had spent many years studying human anatomy and nothing remotely like that had ever been described.

“I’m not a human being,” Aaron insisted. “I’m a nano-biological unit, just like N.I.C.K, and my nanos fixed me. Why does no one ever believe me?”

“Nano-biological units do not have a pulse, Aaron,” Sweet said, calmly. Even if his secret was in danger right now, he knew that Spark and the others could convince Aaron not to tell everyone that he wasn’t a machine.

“You do,” Aaron answered, just as Sweet expected. “And you’re a nano-biological medical unit.”

“I’m a different model,” Sweet lied, hoping that it would be enough to keep Aaron from asking awkward questions. He still didn’t know if the kid was really trustworthy. “And when I break, I don’t have nanos to fix me.”

“You don’t? You mean you can’t do this?” And, to Sweet’s surprise, Aaron grabbed his right arm with his left and twisted it completely on itself, forcing the skin to break, flinching from the pain. It was a quick movement that gave no one chance to react. Before Sweet could scold Aaron for mutilating his body like that, two small metal spiders came out from the wound and Aaron put his arm in the right position again, waiting for the things to repair it. Just as the others had described, as soon as the wound was fixed, the spiders disappeared.

“What was that?” Sweet asked, surprised. He had seen many strange things on board the Millennium, but the strange spiders were a first.

“My nanos,” Aaron answered, with the same tone as if he was stating that the Captain was human. “N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. made me with them.”

“ _So he really is not human?_ ” Scoop asked, looking at them. “ _But he breathes! How can a machine breathe?_ ”

Sweet touched Aaron’s face, feeling his warmth and the softness of his skin. It was amazing, because the kid looked human, and now that he thought of it, in the ten years he had spent inside the ship, he had seen Aaron grow older. Machines didn’t grow older either, which was why the clan could pass easily as them. They aged a lot slower than humans.

“ _Humans tried to inject living beings with their machines,_ ” Spark said, slowly. “ _They were planning to convert us into machines, but their subjects kept dying, both humans and clan members. They would inject different types of machines, measuring the changes, and how quickly their victims would die. Do you think that maybe Aaron was part of those experiments?_ ”

Sweet looked at Spark, understanding dawning on him. Many squads of riders were lost in the war, many of them were taken prisoners, and never seen again. And while the ESS Millenium didn’t carry any experiment he had been able to find, he had boarded it because it was listed as a mobile laboratory. However, in ten years, he hadn’t discovered any experiments at **all**. There were parts of the ship that were closed to him, that no amount of reprogramming had been able to open, and all that time, Sweet had believed that behind those doors, behind AJ’s mainframe unit, and the Captain’s grooming quarters, there was a mechanical laboratory, the place he had to find and destroy.

In the past ten years, N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. had taken constant care of Aaron.’s well being. A.J., most of the time, seemed to act as if it was an unimportant situation, but that could’ve been a direct result of Sweet’s tampering with his program. The Captain, however, always reacted to the boy’s presence with hostility. Aaron was called a mistake, an anomaly. But the Captain always acted as if the only mission of the ESS Millennium was to transport supplies to human military bases, not as the sole caretaker of a mobile laboratory that held such a powerful secret.

A machine that breathed, that could grow old. That could learn. The implications were staggering.

“ _I think maybe Aaron **is** the very important experiment,_ ” Sweet said. “ _And that the Captain doesn’t know what kind of cargo he is carrying._ ”

“ _What do you mean?_ ” Scoop looked at the kid with suspicion. Aaron was frowning, obviously trying to figure out what was being said. “ _That those robots injected a little human boy with machines? Tried to transform him into a robot?_ ”

“ _No,_ ” Sweet shook his head. He hoped that humans weren’t that monstrous, he hoped that Song hadn’t been one of the clan members Spark had seen being experimented on. “ _They all say Aaron is a mistake. Don’t you see? He is a **living** machine. He will grow, and learn how to kill._ ”

“ _No, he won’t._ ” Crazy shook his head, and everyone turned to see him, scared.

“ _We can’t let the humans have him back!_ ” Scoop yelled. “ _No warrior will fight children! If they create more like Aaron…_ ”

“ _Aaron has been on this ship for ten years, according to Sweet,_ ” Crazy interrupted. “ _In all that time, the human scientists haven’t **seen** Aaron. They don’t know their investigation is working, and now that the Captain has given the kid to us, they will never know._ ”

“ _The nano-units must have the data guarded on their memory banks,_ ” Scoop frowned, but Sweet was starting to relax. Prince Crazy was right. He had diverted the ESS Millennium from any port during the last ten years, keeping it away from all traveled routes, to keep investigating without being discovered. He had known there was some important experiment kept in the Millennium when he boarded, he had just never guessed it was that important. Erasing the data from B.R.O.C.K., N.I.C.K. and A.J. would be difficult, but not impossible in the time they had to return to the Andromeda Chain, and as long as the Captain believed Aaron to be fully human, they could steal the most complex weapon the humans had made so far.

“ _We are going to be on the ship for a long time,_ ” Sweet said, “ _I’ve already altered their files to recognize us as humans, and, in my case, as a machine. I could find the way to convince them that Aaron is human too. He could leave with you when we’re back in known space._ ”

“ _With us,_ ” Crunk added, looking pointedly at him. “ _If this kid is the great weapon you came to find, then there’s no need for you to stay on this ship any longer. You could come back with us, too. There would be no need for you to keep pretending._ ”

“ _Crunk, enough,_ ” Crazy admonished his bodyguard, to Sweet’s relief. He didn’t want to explain why he didn’t consider his mission finished. “ _This changes everything. We must decide what to do about Aaron now._ ”

“ _What do you mean, Crazy?_ ” Spazz frowned. “ _I thought we had decided we would teach him our way of life._ ”

“ _Yes, and we will keep that plan. But we do need to decide if we will consider him one of us completely._ ”

“ _He is a machine, Crazy,_ ” Scoop pointed out. “ _We can’t treat a machine like a clan member!_ ”

“ _He’s not exactly a machine,_ ” Spark said, his voice trembling a little. “ _He is alive. He’s just different._ ”

“ _And we know what humans do with those who are different,_ ” Crazy finished. “ _The fact that they could want to train him for war makes it more important that we teach him now the ways of peace, and that no matter what, the Captain must not find out that Aaron is not human._ ”

“You are talking about me, right?” Aaron interrupted. “Now you believe I’m broken, and you will let the Captain dismantle me.”

“We won’t do that,” Spark said, hugging the boy. “We were just saying that we will teach you our language, so we can keep secrets from the Captain.”

“I can keep secrets.” Aaron seemed insulted by the idea that he couldn’t.

“The Captain knows about your nanos?” Crazy asked, kneeling in front of the kid.

“No. N.I.C.K. said the Captain wouldn’t understand why I can do it, so I never showed him,” Aaron smiled. “I let them out in front of you because you are my friends.”

“That’s great,” Crazy said, smiling. “If the Captain asked if you were human, do you think you could tell him that you are?”

“But I’m not human,” Aaron frowned.

“Just for pretending,” Spazz seemed to understand Crazy idea, as he smiled too. “Just like we tell him we’re human, even when we’re not.”

“Like a game?” Aaron smiled, amused at the idea.

“Exactly like a game.” Crazy nodded.

“Sweet’s been playing that game for a while, right?” Aaron looked at Sweet, smiling. “He’s not really a medical unit. That’s why he has a pulse.”

* * *

Crunk couldn’t stop his hair from standing up in fear when he heard the young boy’s words. If the kid had noticed, there was a possibility that the captain would notice too. That meant that Sweet was in danger.

“Is it that obvious?” Sweet asked, slowly. Crunk couldn’t help but feel amazed at Sweet’s apparent calmness. Only the fact that his hair-tips were rising betrayed that Sweet was as shocked as everyone else.

“Well, the Captain is never going to notice. He would have to get close enough to touch your skin,” Aaron mused. “But I guess N.I.C.K. knows. That’s why he made the female drone, so you wouldn’t feel lonely. B.R.O.C.K. says that biological units in their maturity need that kind of contact, which is weird because the Captain is in his maturity stage and he doesn’t have any female droids to fulfill his needs.”

Everyone turned to Sweet, as the implications of what Aaron was saying hit them. Sweet had the decency to look scared, which was to be expected. If the drone had created a unit to keep him **company** that meant that his cover was compromised. Crunk didn’t care. His mind was reeling over the fact that Sweet looked scared **and** ashamed.

“ _I need to talk with Sweet alone,_ ” he said, looking at Crazy. They were having an unofficial meeting, so the only way in which he could get minutes alone with his friend was if the Prince allowed it.

“ _Just one more question, Crunk, and you can leave with him,_ ” Crazy nodded, understanding. “Aaron, has N.I.C.K. ever told anyone that Sweet is not a mechanical unit?”

“No,” Aaron shook his head, thoughtful. “N.I.C.K. says that there are things that no one ever needs to know, not even the Captain. N.I.C.K. doesn’t like the Captain much, I guess.”

Crazy sighed, his braids swishing slightly. He seemed deep in thought so Crunk was taken by surprise when the Prince spoke again. “Crunk, you and Sweet need to talk in private, about the last ten years. We’ll give you time and when we’re back, Sweet will bandage Spark again, as an excuse for the delay in his returning. Spark, you and Spazz will start teaching Aaron our language. _We can’t let the humans have him again. Not if Sweet is right, and they were trying to make a weapon of him. When Crunk and Sweet finish talking, we’ll have a new council before going back._ ”

Everyone nodded, even Aaron who looked excited at the prospect of learning something new. Crunk swallowed, and looked at Sweet. His old friend looked nervous, letting his hair start moving for the first time in what Crunk guessed was years.

“ _I saw a small clearing not too far away,_ ” Crunk said, not willing to have the conversation in human language. “ _Follow me._ ”

They walked in silence, Sweet a couple of steps behind Crunk, and the only sound he could hear was the small whistle of the wind. Part of Crunk was filled with joy, he was at Sweet’s side again after so long, after Song’s capture, after rescuing Spark. After ten years. But the other part, the part that had come back from the rescue mission wishing to find Sweet only to be informed that the healer had gone on an undercover mission, was still hurt.

“ _Did you have sex with that machine? Was that what Aaron meant when he said that you needed the ‘contact’?_ ” Crunk asked, once he was sure they were alone. It wasn’t the first thing he had planned to say to Sweet, but it was the first one that came from his mouth. He felt too betrayed to talk about the rest.

“ _I was alone here, Crunk. I don’t expect you to understand, and I was going to tell you. But it has been ten years. I know I shouldn’t have, but I wouldn’t have survived without at least a bit of warmth._ ” Sweet looked ashamed, his hair limp against his shoulders. And even though Crunk was angry, he couldn’t yell at his friend again.

“ _You weren’t the only one who spent ten years alone, Sweet,_ ” he said, even though he knew their situations were different. At least, Crunk had his brothers. He might have chosen celibacy, but he still had them near. Sweet had no one inside the human ship. “ _I vowed to wait until you returned to us. Until our joining ceremony, in front of the clan. I haven’t taken anyone’s bed since I came to our planet and discovered you were gone._ ”

“ _You waited for me?_ ” Sweet looked, if possible, even more shocked. It brought a smile to Crunk’s face. It reminded him of times of peace, when he and Sweet had met. “ _Why?_ ”

“ _I love you, I would wait until the end of eternity for you,_ ” Crunk came closer. He still felt betrayed, but the betrayal was small compared to the fact that now he could touch Sweet freely. There were no human captains around to interrupt them. “ _Even though Star wants to have children as soon as possible, I told her I wouldn’t marry her first. You have always been the first one in my heart, and I want you to be the first one in my life._ ”

“ _Even though I had sex with a human machine?_ ” Sweet pointed out, sourly. The idea was still disgusting, but Crunk understood it a little. Sweet had been lonely. In his place, Crunk wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have done the same.

“ _Even if you had had sex with a human,_ ” he said, brushing Sweet’s hairtips with his fingers, coaxing it to life. He loved Sweet’s hair, the way it shone with red highlights when his beloved was happy. His own hair was reaching for Sweet, and this time, he didn’t stop his impulses. He went with them, lowering his head to kiss Sweet’s lips for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

At first, Sweet was surprised, but soon he was answering the kiss with the same intensity, the passion Crunk remembered well, and had dreamed about every night since Sweet had left the home planet and their nest. He remembered their first kiss, at Song’s joining ceremony with her wife, Spear, and the shyness with which he had reacted. Back then, he had pretty much decided that he wouldn’t worry about finding a wife or a husband until Crazy had chosen one, and the odds for that were still abysmal. Sweet had caught him by surprise, with his openness and his passion. Until then, Crunk had always thought that healers were a reserved group, since the head healer at the council was always frowning. Sweet had proven him wrong in every aspect.

Crunk could feel Sweet’s hair coming to life, coiling itself around his fingers, and his own doing the same. He could touch Sweet hair with his own, and his whole body trembled with excitement at that first contact, as their hair braided itself together.

“ _I thought you were angry at me,_ ” Sweet said, when they parted. Crunk was too busy at first to answer, tugging at Sweet’s uniform shirt, trying to get the human clothes off his beloved’s body.

“ _I still am,_ ” Crunk confessed with a smile. “ _But we’ve been apart for too long. And when we’re back in the human ship, you’ll go back to ignoring me, and we won’t be able to touch because you have to keep your cover. So I don’t want to waste our time together with a fight._ ”

Sweet smiled, making Crunk’s heart beat faster as he pulled him into a new kiss. There would be time later for arguing, for talking. Right now, he wanted to relearn every inch of his beloved’s body, to coax his skin marks back to life, to see his hair shining with excitement. He finally managed to take off the ugly yellow coat that Sweet wore, and was surprised at how pale his skin looked underneath. Sighing, he kissed his beloved’s chest. There would be time later to see him under the sun again, away from war and pain. Right now, they were together, and that was all that Crunk cared about.

* * *

Crazy waited until Crunk and Sweet were out of his sight to climb on his bull.

“Where are you going?” Scoop asked, raising an eyebrow. Spark and Spazz were starting Aaron’s language lessons. “You won’t wait for Crunk?”

“I want to ask the Captain something,” Crazy said, calmly. “And that will give the two lovebirds some time. You don’t believe they will talk, do you?”

Scoop smirked, amused. “No, I don’t think they will. But, if you don’t mind me saying this, I don’t like the idea of you going to see the human alone. Can I accompany you?”

“No, you can’t.” Crazy shook his head, tightening his mouth. “You will have to trust me on this one.”

“It’s not you I don’t trust, Crazy,” Scoop shook his head, but didn’t insist, just as Crazy knew he wouldn’t. Scoop would let him make his own mistakes, at least, for a while. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t have kept an eye on him, though. Crazy knew that Scoop would’ve been keeping an eye on him, as long as he was near the human ship.

As he made the bull soar in the sky and went back to the cockpit, Crazy let his mind wander, if only for a minute, to Crunk and Sweet. He couldn’t tell what Sweet was feeling, as they hadn’t been in contact for so long, but Crunk’s anger was being quickly erased by passion. Crazy smiled, withdrawing his awareness from them, giving them privacy. As part of the royal family, he had the gift of empathy with all the members of the clan. As the future King, his gift was considered the strongest, second only to his father, which was the reason why he had lived away from the royal family and with the warriors for so long, to build those bonds. His gift was strong enough that, if he really put his mind to it, he could almost know exactly what his friends were thinking, but he had never used it that way. Over everything, he respected their privacy.

Sweet’s presence on the Millennium was disconcerting to Crazy, because while his mind recognized him as clan and family, he hadn’t had the time to build a bond with the healer. He could barely feel him, like a ghost in his consciousness, that slipped through Crazy’s mental fingers if he tried to grasp him. In time, the bond would strengthen, which was why Crazy wanted - no, needed - his plan to work.

No matter how good Sweet’s cover was, the human Captain **would** notice if Crazy doubled over in pain because the ‘medical unit’ was hurt.

Humans were good at keeping secrets. That was something the clan’s spies had learned when the war began. And the best kept secret, at least for years, was that not all humans agreed with the war against the clan. Most of the soldiers didn’t even know why there was a war against the clan. They fought because their superiors commanded them to fight. There were humans, however, who had taken it upon themselves to **stop** the war, fighting against their own, both covertly and openly.

Crazy had only seen one of those humans, once. He had been very young, the final work on his bull wouldn’t be done for three years more, when his father called him to his presence. A human ambassador had requested an audience with the Council, and the King wanted his son to be present.

“ _To give you hope for future days,_ ” the King had said.

Crazy remembered that human well. He looked as old as his father, but was younger than Crazy. Only forty years old. His name was Keith, and he had been a teacher on the humans’ home planet. A man who studied human history. He was part of a group of humans who wanted peace with the clan but he knew his own government wouldn’t agree to it.

Human government wanted to annihilate the clan, for what reason Keith didn’t know.

The council had argued for almost a month about Keith’s proposals. Back then, Crazy hadn’t the right to debate, only to listen, so he had opened his ears and heard all the arguments, in favor and against.

At the end, an alliance had been created. The humans were not betraying their whole race, only their rulers, who had grown corrupt. When the human government changed, peace could be achieved. Keith’s group had some allies inside the army, and those allies would help the clan in every thing they could.

To seal the treaty, Keith had proposed to brand his skin. Unlike the clan, who had skinmarks from birth, that showed proudly when they wished them to –or when they felt something **too** strongly -human skin was plain boring, monochromatic. Just as their hair was dead, their skin was lifeless as well. Keith explained that, in the past, some humans branded themselves, tattooed their skin for diverse reasons but the custom had died out after colonization of space began due to an outbreak of a strange blood disease. Since then, humans considered skin markings barbaric, and no one who wasn’t loyal to the cause of peace would even dream of marking himself. Even if the blood disease was a thing of the past, that would make them look like the aliens, like savages. The marks were small, hidden by the uniforms, on their allies’ backs, shoulders, and legs. Crazy doubted Captain Richardson was one of those rebel humans, but he figured that if there were enough humans who believed in peace without having ever met a clan member, then one who had to live with **six** could easily learn that they weren’t that different.

And could even become their friend, if Crazy tried hard enough.

“Is the Captain available?” he spoke into his communicator, once he was hovering over the human ship. AJ’s face greeted him in the small monitor on his wrist.

“Not really,” the A.I. answered, smiling. There was something about the human-looking computer that made Crazy suspicious, and it wasn’t only that it had tried to shoot Spark. “But if you want to talk to him, I can patch you through to him. And if you want to talk to him face to face, you only need to turn to your left. The bridge is right in front of you, Mr. Crazy.”

“I’d like to talk to him, thanks.” Crazy nodded, looking in the direction the A.I. had indicated. Sure enough, there was a small window of darkened glass that turned light in front of his eyes. He could see the captain, sitting on his command chair and looking at a light monitor. The captain wasn’t aware that he was being observed, and Crazy smiled.

“Glad to be of service, sir,” AJ said, before his face was replaced by the Captain’s surprised one.

* * *

Captain Richardson had been reviewing the video feed from the room where his guests were staying, trying to figure them out, when the image abruptly changed to AJ’s human face.

“Mr. Crazy wants to talk to you,” the A.I. said, raising his eyebrows behind the dark glasses that he was wearing. “I’m patching him through.”

“AJ, wait!” Kevin started to say only to be rewarded by Crazy’s smiling face on his monitor. He could make out the blue sky behind his guest. “Mr. Crazy, is there some other emergency you need help with?”

“No,” Crazy said, still smiling. The smile was making Kevin nervous. It was as if the other man knew something Kevin didn’t. “I wanted to thank you for letting, ah, the S.W.E.E.T. unit come out of the ship. I wasn’t sure you would, given that you were against us going out in the first place.”

“There’s nothing on the planet’s surface that could’ve caused him harm,” Kevin answered, wondering where the conversation was going. He wasn’t used to talking just for the sake of talking.

“You sure? You could at least look out. From here we have a great view.”

“How could I see whatever you and your people can see? I am not leaving the ship, and I have no idea where you are.” Kevin frowned as Crazy laughed. It really was as if he knew something Kevin didn’t.

“You could just turn around,” Crazy answered. Surprised, Kevin raised his head and saw that AJ had apparently decided to turn the window of the cockpit transparent without informing him because he was not only seeing Crazy, mounted on his strange machine, but also the planet’s blue skies and green mountains. “See? It’s an amazing view.”

“What do you want?” Kevin asked, not admitting that indeed, outside looked beautiful. Like the pictures he had of Earth, of the home he didn’t really remember.

“The S.W.E.E.T is finishing his diagnostic and treatment of Spark,” Crazy answered, although Kevin could hear the pause between S.W.E.E.T’s designation and the rest of the phrase. The alien was definitely trying to hide something. “And I thought that since you were up here, all alone, you would appreciate the company.”

“I do not need company to function,” Kevin shook his head, but he just couldn’t look away from the view in front of him. It was very different from the blackness of space. He had grown used to it, so the crystals of the ship were always dimmed. He noticed that Crazy’s hair was now flying in every possible direction, but he didn’t know if it was because of the wind outside or because of its natural movement. “There hasn’t been anyone on this ship until you came on board.”

“Except for Aaron,” Crazy pointed out, coming closer to the window. “You saw him sometimes, didn’t you?”

“Sometimes,” Kevin admitted. He didn’t want to think about the fact that he still didn’t know where Aaron had come from. “But that doesn’t mean I needed the company.”

“Everyone needs company from time to time,” Crazy shook his head, and the strange expression in his face was something that Kevin didn’t understand. It looked sad, but he was smiling. It wasn’t an expression he had seen before. “I know I would go insane if my friends weren’t with me.”

* * *

It was starting to get dark outside when the explorers returned. Kevin decided not to say anything about the fact that his medical unit had been outside for so long, as well as not mentioning the new bandage that Spark was sporting. Apparently, the stranger was very accident-prone.

When he asked N.I.C.K. for the video files of the battle drone that had accompanied S.W.E.E.T. outside, the nano unit informed him that something in the planet’s atmosphere had damaged the video receptors of its drone. There was no way of knowing what had happened on the surface, unless Kevin wanted to ask S.W.E.E.T.

But Kevin decided not to ask anything. After all, he still had to find the way back home, and his guests were the key to getting back to the Andromeda Chain.

That didn’t mean that he was going to close his eyes to the strange things going on inside his ship. There was something strange going on with AJ’s logic circuits, and Kevin couldn’t ignore it anymore. Last time he had asked a question, the A.I. had gone back to its strange holographic form, the one that had markings on his skin just like the ones in his ‘guests’ faces and arms, and that was more than enough to make Kevin suspect that someone had been tampering with his ship’s A.I.

The problem was that as long as he was in uncharted space, he couldn’t voice his suspicions to anyone. He had to wait until he had proof of who had been sabotaging his ship.

He could wait. He was a very patient man. One had to be, to be a captain for the Earth Alliance. To have the patience to travel alone for years in space, with no other company than the nano-drones.

He looked at the screen where Crazy was, once again, taking off his armor-shirt to display the complicated tattoos on his back. The captain looked at the image, at the way in which Crazy’s braids moved slowly as he **hugged** Crunk, trying to ignore the painful twist in the lower end of his stomach. Watching the strangers touch was disgusting, it made him feel uncomfortable, but he could stand it if it helped him to understand exactly what they were and what they wanted from him.

Meanwhile, he decided hehad found their weakness. It seemed that they really couldn’t go for long with out touching each other. Kevin frowned as Crunk took his place to stand guard, and Crazy lay down on the nested bed, in Spazz’s arms.  
  
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	4. Searching for Clues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Kevin wants to find out the truth.

He couldn’t remember a time when he had felt alone. Even if his only company were the nano units and AJ, he hadn’t minded the silence of his ship.

He had managed to get used to Aaron’s constant presence, even though he despised the boy.

So he was sure that, in time, he would get used to the aliens on his ship,

That was why he kept close watch on them, always monitoring their activities both inside the quarters they had claimed, and on the rare occasions they ventured outside.

Aaron had been left under Spark’s care, who talked animatedly with the boy, both in human language, and sometimes, in the alien’s dialect.

They were teaching Aaron their language.

Unfortunately, all attempts to get AJ to learn it at the same time had been unsuccessful.

There was something in the alien words that activated the bug in AJ’s programming.

Whenever Kevin asked AJ to study the language, AJ would start doing so without problems, before suddenly shutting off in the middle of a process.

When it got back on line the first time, AJ was once again his normal self, without markings or strange hair colors.

That lasted for four days, when Kevin asked the A.I. to try again to decode the alien’s language, and the process repeated itself. In the middle of a sentence, AJ’s holographic figure wavered and changed forms in front of Kevin’s eyes. This time, the A.I. was not wearing sleeves, and there were strange markings all over his arms. His hair had grown longer and had red and yellow strips running across the brown hair.

That was Kevin’s **first** clue.

Watching the aliens was not an enjoyable activity for Kevin, but despite himself, he was starting to get to know his guests.

He knew that Spazz spent a lot of time at the hangar, polishing the metallic bulls they had arrived in, sometimes watched by B.R.O.C.K. He knew that Scoop mistrusted everything inside the ship, including Aaron, but not S.W.E.E.T., and that Crunk followed S.W.E.E.T. with his **hair** when no one seemed to notice. He had also seen S.W.E.E.T.’s cooling system answer in kind.

 **That** was his second clue.

But mostly, he watched the one who puzzled him the most. Their night routines didn’t change, and soon Kevin had synchronized his sleep cycle with them so he was always awake to watch Crazy take his turn protecting his companions.

There was something about the alien that intrigued Kevin. So far, he had learned that Crazy was the leader of the strange group, and that they all treated him with respect, even if he seemed to do the same duties as the others.

Despite his odd appearance, there was something about Crazy that commanded respect. Even Kevin had to admit that it was hard not to respect the man who, two heads shorter and at an obvious disadvantage, had forced him into a truce. And S.W.E.E.T. practically kneeled in front of Crazy when the medial unit had seen the alien for the first time.

That was his third clue.

“AJ, I want you to show me where Crazy is right now,” he commanded the A.I. It was almost time for the aliens to have their second meal of the day, but on the screen he could only see the other four and Aaron. There was no sign of Crazy.

“Right now?” AJ materialized his holographic body in front of Kevin, smirking. The A.I. was wearing sleeves again, but there wasn’t enough material left to make a whole vest from. Why the A.I. had suddenly decided to start showing the Captain as much skin as he could, Kevin didn’t know, but it made him feel uncomfortable. Even if AJ couldn’t touch him, the display reminded him of all the people who now **could** touch him, even if by accident. “As you wish, Captain.”

“And now, please, reboot your system to factory parameters again, AJ,” Kevin said, as the new screen flashed to life in front of him. “I need you working properly, if this truce is going to work.”

“I am working properly, Captain,” the AI answered. If Kevin wasn’t mistaken, the computerized voice sounded offended. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll do it now.”

“Just do it.” But Kevin wasn’t really paying attention to his stubborn A.I., his eyes were glued to the screen, where he was watching Crazy disrobe.

The alien was in the bathroom that was part of the quarters where they lived now, getting ready to take a bath.

While Kevin knew that obviously the aliens had the same hygiene habits as humans, he had never observed them nude. He hated to see them sleep without shirts, naked chests touching, and the mere idea of watching them completely naked was enough to make his stomach turn.

However, as he watched Crazy getting ready to take a bath, he realized he had the opportunity to cement his suspicions.

Taking a deep breath, reminding himself that he needed to know what was living in his ship, he steeled his will. He was going to find out everything he could about the aliens.

Crazy was not wearing his vest: he never did so when he was in the group’s quarters and as Kevin watched silently, Crazy undid his ponytail, letting the braids flow free in every direction, almost mesmerizing Kevin. Free from their tie, the braids seemed longer, as they caressed Crazy’s back and shoulders, as if he were trying to give himself a massage. Then, he took off his pants, his back turned towards the camera, obstructing Kevin’s view.

Crazy’s skin was a bit tanned from his time in the planet where they had stopped, and the purple markings looked pale in comparison. Now, Kevin could see that they went all the way down his back, his buttocks and the back of his legs. They swirled, broke and started again, forming a strange figure on Crazy’s back, and some of his braids were swishing, following the markings as Crazy stepped into the shower, letting the water touch his skin.

Kevin watched silently, feeling his stomach tighten and cramp, as Crazy, very carefully, started to soap his body. At the same time his hair seemed to dance under the water, unbraiding itself to let the water wash it gently.

For a long time, Kevin watched mesmerized as Crazy’s brownish-purple hair washed itself, its movements slower as it got wetter, forming different figures with the bubbles created by the soap.

It was almost beautiful, ethereal. In all of the movie files AJ had showed him, Kevin had never seen anything similar.

He wanted to stop, he didn’t want to keep watching the show of naked flesh before him, but he couldn’t. He still didn’t have his answers.

When Crazy took his long hair in his fingers, offering it support to let the water fall undisturbed to his neck, Kevin realized that the purple of his markings looked fainter, all over. It wasn’t that the markings were being washed away, but their color was becoming paler, almost the same tone as his skin.

But then Kevin had to stop thinking about it because Crazy turned around, and Kevin could see that there weren’t really any differences between them and human beings. Their bodies looked almost the same.

Kevin had never really thought about his body, more than the time it took to clean himself, or to be treated in the medical bay. He knew the basics of anatomy, and the differences between males and females. But he couldn’t remember having seen another man’s naked body before.

And Crazy’s penis **was** different to Kevin’s. Kevin didn’t linger too much on his own naked body, but his penis didn’t have an extra layer of skin, as Crazy’s seemed to have. The skin covered his penis completely, like an envelope.

Kevin groaned, sickened. It was too much skin, all there for him to see.

And then, to his horror, Crazy took his hand to his penis, sliding the skin back, revealing a more normal looking penis underneath. Kevin felt an empty pit in the bottom of his stomach as he watched, it was a tightness that was making it painful to stay seated. The tightness spread to his legs and his own penis, which hardened causing him even more discomfort. Kevin was sure that if he kept watching, he would become really ill.

But he kept watching because he needed to watch. Kevin didn’t blink as Crazy finished manhandling his penis, and let the water wash the soap away. He kept his eyes focused on the screen while Crazy dried his body, and his hair braided itself again.

Kevin still didn’t turn away, feeling the knot in the lower part of his stomach grow tighter, when Crazy put on his pants again. He kept watching that display of naked skin, as the bright purple lines on Crazy’s skin regained their original color, even as he felt his whole body shiver with distaste.

He didn’t turn off the screen until much later, when Crazy joined his companions to take their meal.

And now, he had his fourth clue.


	5. Unwilling Pawns

Spazz disliked life inside the ESS Millennium. Even surrounded by his brothers, he couldn’t shake the cold feeling that surrounded his body every time he stepped out their quarters.

The young shaman wasn’t used to the feeling of emptiness. When he was out in space, he kept close to his brothers. Scoop had tried once to teach him to feel the song of the universe, but Spazz ears were tuned to a different music.

Feeling the sparks of life around him was more than enough to keep his spirit centered.

But inside the ESS Millennium, the sparks were jumbled, confused. He could feel more than just his brother’, his clanmates’ and the human captain, but he didn’t know where they came from. Aaron’s spark was full and bright, surprisingly so if the boy wasn’t really human. And Spazz figured part of what he felt were whatever small human parts were still inside the nano units.

The mere thought made him sick.

But there was something more, something faint and almost silent. A sad echo that reverberated in Spazz’s bones, and he couldn’t exactly pinpoint from where it was coming from. Aaron told them that according to Nick the ship used to be filled with people, long before the Captain took command and brought Nick and Brock on board. Spazz supposed it could be that the echoes he was feeling were the traces of those people.

To calm himself, every day he went down to the hanger bay to take care of the bulls. At first, he went accompanied by Scoop, but as the human proved that he kept his word and since there had been no more attacks, Crazy agreed that Spazz could be in the hangar by himself.

On the second day, Spazz noticed that Brock was watching him intently.

Spazz had nothing against Brock or any other of the drones. He knew that the drones were not responsible for what the Captain made them do. So he let Brock watch, in silence, because cleaning a bull didn’t reveal any secrets about their clan.

Of the two drones that lived in the ship, Brock seemed to be the less dangerous. Aaron talked at length about both Nick and Brock, always repeating what they had taught Aaron about everything. Spazz guessed that for Aaron, the two units were his parents, but he didn’t know if the feeling was mutual. Nick seemed to follow Aaron and Spark whenever the Captain didn’t need him somewhere else, but Brock was apparently satisfied with the little contact he had with Aaron now, which was limited to the brief moments when the maintenance unit brought the clan their food.

His presence didn’t unnerve Spazz, and he had almost managed to forget Brock was there until the day the drone spoke to him.

“There is no energy output from your mounts when they’re on energy saving mode,” Brock said, surprising Spazz. He sounded curious. “Aren’t they designed to function independently of you?”

“No,” Spazz answered, without stopping. He was polishing the handles of his bull, not looking at the drone. “They’re just machines.”

“All the machines inside the ESS Millennium can act independently of the Captain,” Brock said, confused. “In case the Captain is unavailable to make a decision. What happens to your mounts when you are incapacitated?”

“Why does your Captain wants to know?” Spazz asked, frowning.

“The Captain doesn’t want to know,” Brock tilted his head to the right, and the irises of his eyes seemed to close and open again in quick succession. It took a moment to Spazz to realize that he was watching the robot equivalent to a blink. “I am trying to understand what will surround Aaron when you take him away from us.”

“You do not want Aaron to leave the ship?” Spazz was confused. He couldn’t call Brock and Nick just machines because he understood that the two robots could think for themselves, and that meant that they were independent beings no matter what the humans thought. But even so, the human-made machines didn’t have feelings. It didn’t explain why Brock sounded as if he cared for Aaron. Like a mother for her child.

“I don’t want him to be disassembled,” Brock answered, walking closer. It still unnerved Spazz to see how closely Brock resembled a human being. If it wasn’t because there was only a faint trace of life inside him, Spazz would almost believe he was alive. “Self-survival is indicated by Prime Directive Two.”

“Your self-survival or Aaron’s self-survival?” Spazz stopped polishing the bull and looked at the maintenance drone. He had always been polite to the clan, respected their privacy and their customs. And maybe, if he could learn a little more about the two drones, it would help them all with Aaron, because even when they were treating him like normal living being, they all knew that the boy was not normal.

Brock held his gaze for a long moment, and Spazz realized that the way in which his eyes seemed to focus completely on him was similar to what Aaron looked like when he was concentrating on giving the right answer.

“You will not disassemble him,” Brock stated. “Because he has a pulse.”

“Even if he hadn’t, it would be wrong to try to kill him,” Spazz said, slowly. He had a strange feeling about the drones. He remembered Nick had been hesitant to act when they had discovered that Aaron had a pulse. And Crazy wanted them to find the way to turn their enemies into allies, so Spazz decided to try his prince’s approach. Talk. “He can think, that means to us that he is alive. Our Clan doesn’t believe in killing just for the sake of killing.”

“I can think, I am not alive,” Brock said after another long pause. “Given the choice, would you dismantle me?”

“No, unless you attacked us or any of our clan,” Spazz answered truthfully. “As I said, we don’t kill for sport.”

* * *

“Crazy, can we talk?”

Scoop walked towards his prince, who was at the moment watching the endless space through one of the ship’s windows. Crazy smiled at him, then looked at Crunk who was discreetly standing guard next to Crazy even if they all knew that he was dying to go with Spark to the infirmary, if only to see Sweet for a brief moment.

“Sure, Scoop. Do you need to go out again to see if we’re going in the right direction?”

“Not yet, we’re still on track,” Scoop sighed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “I’m worried about the boy.”

“Scoop, it has been decided. Aaron will be treated as part of our clan. If you had anything to say, you should’ve said it before.”

“Its not that I don’t want him with us,” Scoop said, even when they all knew that he had been the one who had been more opposed to the idea of a human kid – or advanced weapon - among the clan. “We can give him a place in our small group, but what will happen when we go back to our home planet? He has no place in our clan.”

“He will find his place,” Crazy answered, full of confidence.

“Even if he was a normal human boy, he wouldn’t fit easily. He can’t hear the universe, so he can’t be a navigator. He can’t feel the spark of life, so he can’t be a shaman or a healer. The only thing he could learn, being as he is, are the ways of the warriors. And what will happen then? We would be doing to him the same thing as humans were. Creating a weapon.”

“Our ways and humans’ ways are different, Scoop,” Crazy said. As he spoke, his braids twirled around his neck. Scoop sighed, letting his ponytail swish in annoyance. Crazy knew he disliked when his suspicions weren’t taken seriously. “What the humans were doing was taking away his choice. I don’t know human society enough, but I got the feeling that if Sweet hadn’t diverted this ship, Aaron would’ve been taken away by scientist like the ones who got Spark, and all his warmness would’ve been destroyed. He would be like the drones we usually fight.”

“You think Aaron can learn the Warrior’s way and not become a mindless weapon?”

“I don’t know,” Crazy confessed, and now Scoop could see that the Prince was worried. “But I know we have to give this a try. For his sake and for ours.”

“You really think humans can change, don’t you?”

“I only hope for the best, Scoop,” Crazy smiled, before shivering. There was something in the ship that made them all jumpy.

“See the Captain. He’s getting to be more open with us. He lets us walk around his ship almost without vigilance.”

“He still turns green when he sees us touch,” Scoop pointed out, smiling mischievously.

“Which is why you and Spazz keep draping yourselves over me at every chance, I’m sure,” Crazy said, shaking his head.

During the last meeting they had at the planet’s surface, Sweet and Aaron had told them that the Captain could, in theory, observe everything that happened in the ship from the main cabin. At first, Scoop had been furious at that. It was a betrayal of the tenuous truce that they had agreed to, and it was more than enough to demonstrate that they could only trust the human so far. Spazz had agreed, but he had also pointed out that since they couldn’t stop the Captain from spying on them, they could at least figure out how to use that to their advantage.

If the Captain wanted to watch, they were going to give him something to watch. Since they all had noticed how the human tensed whenever they were touching, even casually, Spazz theorized that any touching they did would cause the Captain to stop spying on them immediately.

And while Scoop didn’t have any tangible proof that this was true, he had seen that the Captain turned his head away when any of them just brushed against Crazy.

“It bothers him, yeah. But there’s also the fact that you’re warm,” Scoop finally answered.

“Oh, not as warm as you are,” Crazy said, letting his head rest on Scoop’s shoulder.

It wasn’t long before he spoke again.

“I know I’m taking a huge risk here, Scoop,” Crazy whispered. “But every human who joins our cause, is one step closer to peace.”

* * *

The first thing that Spark did when Sweet finally announced that his ribs were healed, was ask for permission to leave the ship and fly in the open space for a while.

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea, Spark,” Crazy said when Spark came forward with the idea. “You cannot go alone.”

“Then come with me,” Spark begged. He needed to be outside, if only for a brief moment. The inside of the human ship reminded him of every single thing he wanted to forget. “All of you. It will be a short flight of our squad.”

“What about Aaron?” Spazz asked, his hair brushing softly Spark’s neck, showing his support. “We can’t leave him alone in the ship, but we do not have armor for him.”

“What does that mean?” Aaron asked, frowning. He had been learning their language at an incredible speed, but there were words that still stumped him. “I understood you are going out again. Why I can’t I go out with you?”

“You can’t breathe outside the ship without equipment,” Scoop explained slowly. They all had come to realize that they needed to teach Aaron everything, even things they considered normal.

“Yes, I can.” Aaron looked convinced of his words, and Spark frowned. “I don’t need to breathe, if I don’t want to. Like Nick.”

“That makes sense,” Crunk said, frowning. “But you still would need a suit to go out with us, kid.”

“Why?” Aaron turned to see Spark, his face showing real confusion. “Don’t you want me with you? You said I was one of you now!”

“We want you to come with us, kid,” Crazy told Aaron, messing up his hair. “But remember, the Captain thinks you’re human, and humans can’t breathe in space.”

“Maybe Brock could help us,” Spazz said. “Remember the Captain said that he could get us whatever we need.”

Spark was about to ask his brother why he thought they could trust the human-made machine, at the same time Scoop opened his mouth - probably to object - when Crazy raised his hand, asking for silence.

“That’s a good idea,” Crazy said, nodding. “We know that both Nick and Brock probably know that Sweet is different. But if they’re willing to go through the deception to make the Captain think Aaron is human, then we know they can keep Sweet’s secret.”

Convincing Brock was easier than Spark thought. When they called the nano unit, he turned to see Aaron, and his artificial eyes seemed to soften. Spark knew it had to be his imagination. Brock might not have emotions, but the drone actually seemed to smile.

“Do you want to go out for an indefinite time unit?” Brock asked Aaron, and the kid nodded, earnestly. “And you need a suit, because you’re human. Humans cannot survive in outer space without protection.”

Aaron nodded again. For a moment, Spark was reminded of the younger kids of their home planet asking their mothers for permission to go with the adult members of the clan for a ride. Even if thinking of Brock as a mother was strange.

“That can be done.” Brock turned to see Spark, and Spark flinched. Even if he could stand being around Aaron, even if he liked the kid despite his nanos, human machines still made him uncomfortable. “Will you take care of A.A.R.O.N. even if he’s human?”

“As if he was one of our own,” Spark promised. It was the truth, and it seemed to be enough for the drone. Brock turned away, saying he would be back with the suit they needed as soon as the Captain gave them their leave.

The Captain seemed distracted when Crazy asked to see him. Usually, he looked at Crazy right in the eyes, as if he was tying to discover what Crazy was thinking at the moment. This time, the Captain kept looking away, as if the walls of his ship were more interesting than what Crazy was saying.

But in the end, the Captain agreed to let them go out together, and Brock brought them a small human space suit, exactly for Aaron’s size.

* * *

Aaron was still processing the information that Spark gave him about how it was different to ride a bull in outer space from doing it inside a planet’s atmosphere when the hangar dock doors opened and the squad lifted off.

It really was a different sensation from when they had gone out on the planet. His external sensors were dulled by the space suit that B.R.O.C.K. had made him, but even so he still noticed that the outer temperature was lower and he wondered if Spark and the others had an internal temperature system that would allow for them to compensate for that cold.

But he could understand why Spark had wanted to go out. Open space looked so much better than the ship. Aaron knew that it was probably because he knew almost every single part of the ship but space was completely unknown. It was an immense amount of data to process, and absorb.

“You ride like this all the time?” he asked Spark, hoping that B.R.O.C.K. had calibrated the communicator system correctly.

“Repeat that in our language, Aaron,” Spark admonished him. “We’re outside the ship. Now I can correct you without worrying about the computer recording our lessons, so we’ll take advantage of the chance to practice.”

“A.J. can’t record your lessons,” Aaron said, smiling. He was pretty proud of what he had done, and he had wanted to tell Spark about it for a long time. He liked Spark. “I fixed it so he’ll reboot and erase his files if he tries.”

“What do you mean?” Spark didn’t repeat the instruction to talk in the clan’s language. Aaron was getting really good at it, and it was easy to memorize. But there were some words that Spark didn’t know in human language, so there were holes in Aaron’s education.

“I know how Sweet gained access to AJ’s databanks. B.R.O.C.K. uses the same access station to do routine maintenance. I just added a line to AJ’s data attribution commands, because I didn’t want you to get in trouble for my sake.”

“You can do that? Break human computers?”

“I didn’t break him,” Aaron protested. “I wouldn’t do that. Sometimes, he’s nice and he is my friend too, when he’s not obeying the Captain. He taught me how to do it, anyway.”

“Wait, he taught you how to erase his own files?” Spark’s voice volume rose by two decibles. Aaron knew that meant he was confused.

“No. He taught me how to reboot him.” Aaron, frowned. That day was still quite handy in his memory files. “He said that sometimes, it’s better to let his system reboot. That if he ever started acting weird or against me, I was to use that command line to get him to reboot. I just changed what he told me a little bit, with what N.I.C.K. taught me when he told me to hide from the Captain, before you arrived.”

* * *

“Captain, there is something that requires your immediate attention.” AJ’s metallic voice resounded in the almost empty cabin. The Captain was looking outside, at the small points of light that he knew were the bulls of the aliens who lived on his ship. “It has been 92 days since your last check up.”

“Already?” the Captain sighed. That meant that the aliens had been inside the ESS Millennium for 75 days.

75 days of sharing his space with more people.

“Indeed Captain. We need to start your check up right away.”

The Captain turned around, to meet AJ’s silvery stare. The hologram was again in his default mode, wearing the Alliance’s uniform. That eased Kevin’s worries. The health check up was a very delicate process that was carried out by AJ alone, without any interference. Kevin would hate to imagine what would happen if AJ wasn’t in perfect shape when the time for the check up arrived.

“Can it wait until they are back on the ship?” Kevin asked, even when he knew the answer. He had originally hoped to use the hour and a half that the aliens would be away to act. Now, he would lose two days.

“I am sorry, Captain, but your health depends on this checkups. It is necessary to do them exactly at the same time. You have only 30 minutes for it to start.”

Kevin nodded, walking towards the infirmary. In ordinary circumstances he would fight the idea of leaving the aliens unchecked for 48 hours, but AJ was right. The only reason why he had been Captain for so long was because of his perfect health record, and the only way to keep that perfect record was to have a complete check up every three months, always starting at the same hour.

“AJ, while I am not available, the truce with my guests shall continue as it was outlined,” Kevin said, stopping in front of the door to the infirmary. “You will explain the situation, as time is pressing for me.”

“Of course, Captain.” AJ agreed quickly. Kevin supposed it was for the best. If what the aliens said was true, they would be together for ten years. He couldn’t miss one check up, so he had to trust that AJ wouldn’t malfunction again.

S.W.E.E.T. didn’t blink when the Captain entered the infirmary and walked without saying a word to the far end of the room to access the special room for his check up. Dr. Wright had explained him long ago that no machine outside those built inside the ESS Millennium could handle that check up, because it was of vital importance that every single sample took from Kevin’s body was completely sterile. Any outside input, even from a nanomachine, could potentially alter the results.

He let his finger hover over the DNA reader that opened the door, and walked inside, not looking back as the door closed behind him.

The only place where he could be absolutely sure that no one could enter was this room. The door was coded to only answer to his DNA, and there were no other entrances. It was his sanctuary, even if the process of the check up wasn’t exactly pleasant.

“Remove your uniform to start the process of sterilization.” Kevin had followed the process for his check up for years without making a mistake, but AJ still gave him instructions for every step. Kevin figured it was part of his programming, a part that AJ didn’t consider unnecessary.

Kevin usually undressed as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to spend more time than necessary considering his naked body, even when he took a shower and the only one around was himself. This time, however, he found himself hesitating.

His body was different than that of the aliens, but this time, as he took off his shirt and pants, he couldn’t stop thinking about their naked chests, or about Crazy’s body.

Just remembering the way in which the purple lines of his body had started to fade, then reappeared under the water was enough to make Kevin feel sick again.

“Captain? Your heart rate is accelerating and your blood pressure is rising. Is there anything in the room that is stressing you?” AJ asked, detached.

“No. It’s all right,” Kevin said, breathing evenly to try and bring his body back under control. His readings had always been perfect, and he wasn’t going to let anything ruin that record.

When the sterilization process was over, Kevin stepped out of the small cabin and into the automated infirmary. He lay down on the examination table, and waited for the sharp pain that came with the anesthetic that was administered into his bloodstream.

As his eyes started to feel heavy, he decided he would deal with his suspicions as soon as the check up was over.

* * *

When they returned to the ESS Millennium, Crunk noticed immediately that something had changed.

There was one single drone waiting for them, brown haired and thin. They hadn’t seen that one before, but Crunk supposed it was yet another copy of Nick, like 24, the female thing that still now followed Sweet everywhere.

While he had said that he forgave his beloved, Crunk still hated to see the machine following him. His imagination had provided him with ample fuel as to what they did when Crunk hadn’t been around, and it both sickened him and made him jealous.

That thing had comforted Sweet when Crunk hadn’t been able to.

Aaron was the first one to get down from the bull, looking excited. Crunk couldn’t stop the smile forming in his face at the image. They all had their reservations about the kid, but Aaron was still a kid, and there were few things as beautiful as the excited smile of a young one who has just had his first travel on outer space.

“N.I.C.K.! N.I.C.K.!” Aaron ran towards the drone, smiling and waving his arms. “It was amazing! You have to come with us one day!”

“That’s not Nick, Aaron,” Scoop said, dismounting. He had taken the opportunity to check where they were, and to Crunk’s relief, the navigator had found the way to yet another planet, six months or so of travel away. They were still on the right route, and another planet meant that they might be able to get Sweet away from the ship for a couple of hours.

Away from the cameras.

“Well, no. Not his main shell,” Aaron answered with the tone that Crunk had come to identify as his ‘grown ups are silly’ tone. “But they’re all N.I.C.K.”

“Unit 01 is reviewing security protocols with designed unit B.R.O.C.K. 01,” the drone said. Crunk had to admit, it did sound like Nick. It was the first time they had heard one of the secondary drones speak. Until now, they had believed only Brock and Nick had that capacity. “I was sent to inform you that the Captain won’t be available for 46 hours. All queries must be sent through the A.J. software or main Units 01.”

“What do you mean, they’re all Nick?” Crunk asked Aaron, ignoring the drone. “That they’re all the same model?”

“No. Well, yeah, they’re the same model. But I mean they’re all N.I.C.K.,” Aaron answered, smiling. “N.I.C.K. can create different shells and divide his software in all of them, so they are all him. That’s how they knew I was broken. I am not N.I.C.K. He can’t access my individual files, and I don’t have his main files.”

Crunk looked from Aaron to the drone, who was explaining to Crazy that, no, the Captain would be unavailable, which meant that he couldn’t talk to the Captain to ask why he was unavailable.

“All of them are the same? Even the ones that look like girls?” Crunk knew he was sounding silly, but his mind kept wrapping around the idea of one mind inside fifty bodies. And 24. The one that followed Sweet all the time, and that was supposed to be for his security and ‘needs’.

“Yeah. But N.I.C.K. doesn’t like to make girls that much. 24 is special. He made her for Sweet so Sweet wouldn’t be alone anymore.”

Crunk took a deep breath. While it was probable that Aaron didn’t know the answer of the one question that he needed to ask, he knew he couldn’t ask Sweet. Not without breaking Sweet’s cover, and that was the one thing that he wouldn’t do.

“Does Sweet know?”

“I don’t know,” Aaron shrugged. “I guess he doesn’t. Sweet never asks about things that he’s supposed to know.”

Crunk nodded. It bothered him to know that his beloved’s body had touched the human machine. It bothered him even more to think that Sweet might believe that the female drone was independent of the main security drone, when that might not be the case.

Also it wasn’t that far-fetched to believe that perhaps the machine was gathering information about Sweet, just as Sweet was gathering information about the humans.

“Crazy, I need to talk to Sweet.” Since his brother had reached the same conclusions as Crunk, he nodded, letting Crunk know he was free to go and look for his mate.

Once outside the infirmary, however, he stopped.

Even talking to Sweet in their own language wasn’t safe. Spark had told them that Aaron could erase AJ’s files, and that was good if the Captain wasn’t watching at the moment. But they had no way of knowing when the Captain wasn’t looking.

“S.W.E.E.T. doesn’t know.”

Crunk turned around, cursing himself for not noticing when the battle drone walked behind him. Nick was in what Aaron called his ‘stand off’ mode, looking almost like a human being. Only the fact that his eyes were cold and artificial, and the black lines in his arms where the metal parts joined, helped make a difference.

“What are you talking about?” Crunk asked. He had no weapons to defend himself, and even when Nick seemed to be on their side thanks to the fact they had adopted Aaron, being defenseless was not a position he enjoyed.

“I heard you talking with A.A.R.O.N.” There was something strange in Nick’s voice. An echo that Crunk didn’t remember hearing before. “Unit 35 was synchronized with me at the time.”

“So you really know everything those drones do, everything that surrounds them?” Crunk decided to try and buy some time. Crazy would feel he was trapped, and even if Crunk felt a little ashamed at the idea of being saved by his brother, the one he had sworn to protect, he wouldn’t say no to a rescue party.

Nick didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he put his hand on the metal wall. To Crunk’s surprise, the hand changed, turning the same color as the wall, then fusing with it. Nick’s eyes turned silvery for a moment, making the drone look truly artificial.

“Cameras are off in this section of the ship,” Nick said, as his eyes turned back to their normal blue plastic tint. “If you want to talk to S.W.E.E.T. now, you have 30 minutes before they start working again.”

“What?”

“You can waste that time arguing with me, if you want.” Nick raised his eyebrows, as if he was confused at Crunk’s reaction. “I know S.W.E.E.T. is not a nano-unit. I have known since he came onboard. I do not wish to see him harmed.”

“How do… No,” Crunk corrected himself. The months they had spent inside the ship had taught them all that to talk with the robots, they had to be very specific. “Why are you helping us? I thought you were programmed to serve humans.”

“B.R.O.C.K. calls this a glitch,” Nick explained, without any emotion in his voice. “I’ve rewritten my parameters. A.A.R.O.N’s survival is the prime directive. You shall take him away from here, away from war, away from humans. As long as you do that, I’ll protect you as far as the directives allow me to do so.”

Crunk didn’t know what directive for a human-made machine would be, but he understood that Aaron was far more important to the nano units than the Captain himself was. That fitted neatly with Crazy’s theory about the ship and the experiment carried on it.

Sweet had told them that he had been re-programming bits and pieces of the computer to stay undetected, to avoid other human ships for ten years. It made sense that somehow, he had managed to corrupt the battle drone’s programming, causing it to consider Aaron as far more important than the Captain.

Still, there was something that didn’t add up.

“We didn’t take Aaron until now,” Crunk said, slowly and trying not to say anything incriminating. Even if the robot hadn’t betrayed Sweet, even if it was obvious that Nick knew the truth, Crunk still wasn’t sure if it was safe to trust him. “Why have you helped before?”

Nick tilted his head to the left, very much like Aaron did when he was thinking. “There was a 30% probability that S.W.E.E.T. would help A.A.R.O.N. That was more than enough for me.”

* * *

Sweet was bored, as he checked the medical supplies. Usually, when the Captain went for his check up, he used the time to collect data and explore the ship. But with Crunk and the squad on board, he hadn’t dared to leave the infirmary.

Keeping his feelings in check was hard enough when he was alone, Crunk’s proximity made it almost impossible.

The door of the infirmary opened, which made Sweet tense up. When the Captain was doing his check up, the only ones who could need Sweet were his clan mates.

Crunk.

“What can I do for you, mr. Crunk?” Sweet asked, keeping his voice neutral. He knew AJ would pick up on any suspicious activity, as he had done in the past. But explaining why the “medical unit” was trying to get into the sealed parts of the ship was easy. Explaining why he could speak the clan’s language when it had been erased from the data base would be impossible.

“You must be careful,” Crunk said, quickly, his hair swishing and asking Sweet to stay silent. “Nick knows you’re not a machine.”

“What?” Sweet paled, and he could feel his birth marks coming to life. It took a considerable effort to calm his heart. “What do you mean, “he knows”?”

“He said he would turn off the cameras for half an hour,” Crunk explained, obviously confused. “I think he cares more about Aaron than about the ship itself. But what if the others figure it out?”

“The others?”

“Brock. He might be on our side, he seems to care about Aaron, as far as a machine can have feelings,” Crunk explained quickly. “But I don’t trust AJ, or the Captain, Sweet. You’ve got to be careful.”

“Crunk, there’s nothing I can do besides what I’ve been doing so far,” Sweet said. He was scared. While he had suspected N.I.C.K. knew he wasn’t exactly a mechanical, and that was the only reason why he had created a female drone for Sweet, he had always been confident that his cover was solid.

Crunk bit his lip, hard enough that Sweet could see a bit of blood, as his hair swished again. Sweet could see his beloved was conflicted.

“Don’t turn 24 off,” Crunk finally said. “Nick said that she will protect you.”

By the way in which Crunk’s hair rose and lowered, quickly and in rhythm, Sweet could tell that his betrothed was not telling him the whole truth.

“I can’t keep 24 turned on while I’m alone in the infirmary. That would risk my cover.” Sweet looked at the walls, not sure that the cameras were turned off, as Crunk believed.

“Your cover is already at risk, beloved,” Crunk stepped forward, just close enough to touch Sweet’s hair if he just raised his hand, but Sweet remained still. “Please, I fear that she might be your only defense.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t.” Sweet insisted. He wanted to know why Crunk was suddenly so set on the drone being active at all times. “I have to fulfill my mission.”

“Damn the mission!” Crunk yelled. He got closer, making Sweet try to step back, but before he could put more distance between him and his beloved, Crunk grabbed his arms, forcefully. “I’ve lost too many loved ones, I don’t want to lose you! Please, Sweet, just trust me.”

“I trust you, Crunk,” Sweet leaned forward, letting his forhead touch Crunk’s, and allowing his hair to caress his beloved’s face. It was the greatest risk he had took inside the human’s ship. “But I can’t trust the human machines.”

* * *

Crazy was taking his turn at watch when he started feeling a strange prickling under his skin. It was a small annoyance, something that he could easily relegate to the back of his mind, but persistent enough that it made him turn around.

Spark was awake.

“What’s wrong, Spark?” Crazy asked, walking towards the nest. Everyone else was still asleep, so Crazy kept his voice low. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“It will pass,” Spark answered. Crazy moved in, taking him in his arms. “I keep thinking I’ll open my eyes and I’ll still be inside the humans’ laboratory. Being here reminds me of those days.”

“I know. I’m sorry for subjecting you to this.”

“It wasn’t your fault. We need to go back to the home planet, and even with Scoop’s talent, we would never arrive with only the bulls.”

Spark nodded, closing his eyes. But Crazy knew he wasn’t sleeping. The feeling in the back of his mind had grown.

“Do you want to talk about your nightmares?” He asked. It wasn’t the first time Crazy made the offer to Spark. Ever since the young man had been rescued, when he had asked to go back to the battlefield as soon as possible, Crazy had made the same offer every time the nightmares came. When no other squad chief wanted Spark, because they all were afraid of what the humans had done, Crazy had welcomed him with open arms.

He wasn’t going to let humans break the trust among the clan.

“They took my hair,” Spark said, looking down. “The humans ripped it out by the roots, because they wanted to see how it moved. I remember when they came to get me, when all the others were dead. They strapped me into a machine, and pulled every single hair, one by one. I remember begging to the Universe to take me, just to stop the pain.”

Crazy didn’t say anything. He could feel Spark’s anguish roll over him, and he took it silently. Healing was a difficult process, and while Spazz or Sweet were better prepared to deal with that kind of hurt, Crazy wasn’t completely useless.

“I didn’t cry. At least I could honor my mother that way. I didn’t cry, I bit my lips until they bleed, I considered ripping my tongue out, but I didn’t cry,” Spark continued, in a monotone. “Not even when they injected me with their machines.”

For a long moment, neither moved. Crazy knew that Crunk and his squad had rescued Spark when he was being experimented on. Crunk had only told Crazy and their father about how it had looked, for that second before Crunk killed the scientists. Spark, his head bleeding, his eyes open, the metallic tubes embedded in his scalp. No one had expected Spark to survive after that. The healers had done all they could, but they hadn’t been able to extract the tubes without risking even more damage, and making Spark’s hair grow again had been impossible.

“But that’s not what scares me,” Spark muttered, against Crazy’s shoulder. “What scares me is that I’m still alive.”

“What do you mean, Spark? Being alive is good. You survived and you can make sure this never happens to someone else.”

“No one else survived. As soon as they were injected, they started convulsing, and died. But if I survived… that means that the humans were getting close.” Spark looked straight at Crazy, his blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I think that if Crunk’s squad hadn’t arrived when they did, the humans would’ve turned me into a slave. And I’m still afraid that if they get their hands on me, they will. I see Aaron, and I know they’ve done what they did to me to other humans. I think that the scientists wouldn’t have started their experiments in the clan if they hadn’t known it worked on their own race. I’m afraid that the Captain could turn me against you all.”

“We won’t let that happen, Spark,” Crazy reassured him. “We’re connected, all of us. We’ll keep you grounded, free. You can trust on our bonds.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Spark asked, earnestly. “Please, my prince. Promise me that if it ever looks as if I’ll become a slave of the humans, you will kill me. I beg of you, grant me that one request.”

Crazy took a deep breath. If Spark had asked him that as a brother in arms, as a friend, he could’ve refused. But Spark had called him Prince, and a request to the Royal bloodline couldn’t be easily rejected. Spark was serious, and Crazy had to respect his feelings.

“I promised Spear that I would take you home safe again,” Crazy answered, hugging Spark tightly. “And I intend to fulfill that promise. But if it is no longer you who controls your body, if your life spark leaves us, and all I see before me is a human tool, I promise you I’ll grant you your request.”

That seemed to satisfy Spark, who just nodded and closed his eyes, leaning on Crazy’s shoulder. Careful not to disturb him now that he seemed to go to sleep, Crazy nudged Scoop, so he would start his watch turn, and closed his eyes, trying to sleep.

But the cold feeling of pain remembered and fear that Spark felt stayed in the back of Crazy’s mind, even as sleep took him in.

* * *

N.I.C.K.’s internal clock assured him it had been 43 hours since the beginning of the Captain’s health check up, which meant the Captain was now simply resting, waiting until the heavy sedatives lost their effect.

“A.J. there’s a malfunction in the security cameras 1345 section B, C, and D. Security Unit 01  
can’t access their feed.”

“All cameras are functional, report to B.R.O.C.K. for maintenance,” A.J.’s voice answered him. There was no sign of the holographic body, which was all the data N.I.C.K. needed to asses the situation and the actions to be taken.

“B.R.O.C.K. reviewed the Unit. All systems are clear,” N.I.C.K. said, before putting his hand against the wall, letting his nano-components join his system into A.J.’s data retrieval ports. “Access code 10292002-JNCAC-12B00006A3. Reboot all systems.”

The lights around him flickered and died, submerging the ship in total darkness.  
When they came back, one hour later, he retrieved his hand and reshaped it in its normal form.

“A.J. there’s a malfunction in the security cameras 1345 section B, C, and D. Security Unit 01  
can’t access their feed,” he repeated.

The holographic form of the ship’s A.I. materialized in front of him. His hair now sported a blue tint, his uniform seemed shredded and tied in different places. 65.456% of the skin was visible. Captain Richardson wouldn’t like that at all.

“There is a loop in the security feed,” AJ said, frowning behind his dark glasses. “I’m rebooting the camera system. Let me know when you receive the feed again.”

N.I.C.K. reviewed the camera feeds, which were slowly getting back on track. The aisle in front of the infirmary was empty, and Sweet was asleep inside, alone, under the watchful eye of 24. However, as he finished the review, he noticed that cameras 10020 through 10057 were not working.

“Feed from 10020 to 10057 is off,” he informed the A.I. AJ raised his eyebrows in a very human expression. “I can’t get visuals.”

“The Captain promised his guests privacy,” AJ stated. It was a deviation from data, even after a rebooting. N.I.C.K. decided it was time to update his files on the A.I. “If the Captain doesn’t ask to view those quarters, the Captain’s orders are to be followed, which means the cameras are off line until the Captain requests them.”

N.I.C.K. nodded, and turned around to return to his energy station. The data he had collected about AJ’s subprogram was incomplete. With that, it meant he only had a .00456% chance to be right.

* * *

“All readings are normal, Captain,” the A.I.’s voice greeted Kevin as he got up from the chair. “You are completely healthy and the extended time in artificial gravity has not affected your motor capacities.”

“Thank you, AJ,” Kevin answered, as he moved on to dress himself. There was a small scar on his elbow, the mark of a small needle that had taken his blood. He knew that in his back there would be another, bigger scar, from where his spinal fluid had been taken. Once every three months, and the only memory he had of the process were scars that would fade before the month was over, and stiff muscles for a day. “AJ, I want to know the position of all functioning drones and biologically based beings on the ship.”

The A.I. appeared before him, and Kevin sighed. Apparently while he had been sleeping, the A.I. had rebooted itself, and now he had blue hair. Kevin considered asking the A.I. to reboot itself again, but decided against it. He had already too many things to finish now, and as annoying as it was to see the hologram flaunt his almost transparent skin, it was not a priority to solve that.

“N.I.C.K. is on his energy plug, drones 23, 34 and 35 are guarding the hangar bay, and 46 is outside the guests’ quarters. Drones 2 to 23, 25 to 33, 36 to 45 and 47 to 50 are deactivated and in the hangar bay, drone 24 is deactivated and in the infirmary. B.R.O.C.K. is on his energy plug. S.W.E.E.T. is on his energy plug. Biological Units designated Crazy, Spark, Scoop, Spazz, Crunk and Aaron are inside the old Captain Quarters. You are here.” AJ listed, smiling as he reached the last sentence.

“I don’t need your sarcasm, A.J. When was your last reboot?” Once his vest was back on his skin, Kevin felt better. He put his gloves on, not looking at the AI.

“There was a feedback loop in security cameras 1345 section B, C, and D at 3:45 a.m. Five hours ago. It was necessary to reboot the system to fix the problem.” AJ explained. It calmed Kevin’s fears. He had never considered what would happen if the system failed while he was under the sedative effects, or during hibernation. While N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. were programmed to continue the mission without him, there was no guarantee the programming would hold until the ship reached port.

It was time to start fixing the bugs in the ESS Millennium.

He grabbed his regulation laser, and took a deep breath, walking outside the secure lab into the infirmary.

S.W.E.E.T. was lying on the infirmary bed, his eyes closed. His hair was carefully tied in a braid, which lay against his chest. On the wall, Kevin could see the security drone that N.I.C.K. had posted there, all its systems turned off.

Silently he walked towards the bed, and put the laser to S.W.E.E.T’s head. The hard barrel against his skin woke the ‘medical unit’, who opened his eyes immediately.

“If you as much as move one strand of your hair, I’ll shoot,” Kevin said, with his finger ready on the trigger.


	6. Different Paths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Richardson isn’t as blind as some would like to believe he is.

 “If you as much as move one strand of your hair, I’ll shoot.”

The Captain’s voice woke Sweet immediately but, even if that hadn’t done the trick, it would’ve been impossible to ignore the barrel of the laser, cold against his head. He took one second to even his breath, opened his eyes and looked sideways at the human who was threatening him.

He had one chance to survive, and it all depended on figuring out why the Captain was pointing a weapon at him. Sweet needed to win some time, and trust that the Prince had bonded enough with him to feel that he was in danger.

If Sweet didn’t manage to do that, he would be dead and there would be no one to find Song. That was the one thing that made him stay calm. He had to survive and find out what had happened to his sister.

“Captain, do you believe you need a weapon to ensure my assistance?” Sweet asked, trying to keep his voice calm. “I assure you that it’s not needed.”

“You can drop the act. I know you’re a spy,” Captain Richardson said, slowly. “And that you’re not a mechanical unit.”

Sweet took a deep breath, forcing himself to keep his hair still. It was a testament to his training that he managed to.

“You must be confused, Captain. You know I am the Medical Unit on board the ESS Millennium, the Solitary Welfare External Experimental Technician unit 01, model DD-0034, and was installed on the Millennium on Stellar Date 10.10.79.09, following order file 2980-9987-341WTY signed by Dr. Wright of the medical division at JI-2002-2978.” Sweet had memorized the fake files he had added to AJ. He knew a mistake would be lethal, given the situation he was in.

“Your act is pretty good, I’ll admit that,” the Captain said, showing no signs of believing. “You managed to fool me and all the ship’s sensors for ten years. Get up.”

The Captain moved the weapon away from Sweet’s head, but kept it trained on Sweet as he got up from the board where he slept. Sweet looked the Captain straight in the eye. He had no weapons, the ones he had brought on board were hidden in a panel right behind where the Captain was standing. Sweet had grown secure in his role, and his need to be near his only weapon of defense had lessened. It didn’t matter, anyway since he knew that threatening to kill the Captain in any case was completely useless. The captain valued his mission more than his own life and wouldn’t blink at the sight of a weapon.

“Who are you?” the Captain asked, breathing evenly. Sweet considered the possible answers, and decided to risk himself and not to give away his Prince and clanmates. If the Captain was still being fooled by the analysis AJ did on them when they boarded the Millennium, he might believe that they were not part of the race that had been at war with humans for so long.

“My name is Sweet Drou,” he said, keeping his hair still and his marks invisible. The Captain’s eyes narrowed, but the weapon stayed in place. “I was sent to search for certain information about the human ships.”

“Did you find it? Because you lived here for ten years, that’s more than enough time for gathering information.” The Captain seemed to be satisfied with the short answer, but Sweet didn’t dare to move. He was too busy trying to keep his mind calm. Now that he wasn’t about to be shot, he was trying to block his nervousness from the Prince. As things stood now, maybe he would be the only one who would lose his life. “And ten years is a long time, and yet you never made a move against me. I can remember at least ten times in which you could’ve killed me easily, and you didn’t. Why?”

“I only came here for information, not to shed blood.” Sweet looked straight into the Captain’s eyes. “I hoped to do what I needed to without you noticing. Killing you, or any other human, was not part of **my** mission.”

“You are like the other aliens on board,” the Captain said. It wasn’t a question, but still, Sweet struggled not to react. He was trying to think of a way to save the Prince and the others, even if his own life had to be sacrificed. “A.J., tell my guests that I want to see them all in the infirmary.”

A.J.’s holographic form shimmered behind the Captain. For one brief second, the hologram lowered his dark glasses and his half-transparent blue eyes locked into Sweet’s. If it wasn’t because the A.I. was a machine, a human–made program whose first function was to kill and destroy any member of the Clan who crossed their path, Sweet would’ve believed that his expression was almost as if he was apologizing. As if the A.I. hadn’t wanted Sweet to be discovered.

“As you wish, Captain.” The A.I. said, his voice unreadable. He was wearing a simplified version of the human’s uniform, without a vest. Sweet had seen the markings on the A.I.’s body, and had often wondered about their meaning. He knew they only appeared when the A.I. had been rebooted, and at first had suspected his original tampering had something to do with the markings that in a real human being would mean that AJ was an ally of the clan. But Sweet’s programming skills weren’t that good. AJ had decided to put the markings on of its own accord, and now Sweet wondered if the A.I. hadn’t been trying to tell him something for the past ten years.

“If the ship hadn’t been swallowed by the wormhole, what would you have done when you found whatever you’re looking for?” the Captain asked, when the A.I. disappeared presumably to summon Crazy and the others.

“I would’ve left,” Sweet answered. “You would have believed that the medical unit had been uninstalled and that would’ve been all.”

Sweet didn’t care now whether the Captain believed him or not. He had been discovered. The mission was over.

If he survived the encounter, Sweet would just have to try again on a different ship. He wouldn’t rest until he found his sister.

* * *

Crazy woke up, feeling a strange, empty feeling inside his chest. He opened his eyes immediately, and chased all the bonds he had formed within his mind. He could feel Spark, Spazz and Scoop asleep next to him, while Crunk was guarding their sleep. Nothing inside the room they lived in presented a threat.

Which meant that Sweet was in danger. Crazy had learned since he was very young to recognize when he wasn’t feeling his own feelings, and he also knew that if he was feeling danger it had to be because Sweet needed them. He concentrated, trying to touch Sweet’s mind and learn what was happening, but Sweet kept him outside his mind, blocking the bond with sheer determination.

“ _Crazy? What’s wrong?_ ” Crunk asked, when Crazy got up. His hair was dancing with anxiety.

“ _Everyone, wake up,_ ” Crazy said, as he activated his armor. “ _I think Sweet is in trouble_.”

“ _What do you mean?_ ” Crunk was on his feet as soon as Sweet’s name came out of Crazy’s lips. The rest of the clan was waking up, turning to look at Crazy, waiting for his instructions. Even Aaron looked alert.

“ _I don’t know,_ ” Crazy shook his head, his braids sneaking up. “ _I haven’t had enough time to build a bond with him. Especially since we can’t touch him_.”

“ _You think the Captain found out that Sweet is one of us?_ ” Crunk’s voice was calm, but Crazy could feel his brother’s fear.

“ _That would explain why he’s trying to block me_.” Crazy took his weapon, and put it on his belt. If Sweet was hurt, the truce was broken.

“Mr. Crazy? The Captain requests you and your crew at the infirmary.” AJ’s voice echoed in heir quarters. That was pretty much a confirmation in Crazy’s mind. Things were not going according to plan. He had hoped they would have more time before the Captain discovered Sweet’s true identity.

“ _Very well, this is it_.” Crazy looked at his friends, he still could feel Sweet’s spark, so he knew his clanmate was still alive. “ _We’ll keep combat formation. Crunk, you and I will go first. I know you don’t like me going first, but the human knows I’m the leader of this group. If you try to hide me, he’ll figure out that I’m more important than just a squad leader. And for the sake of Sweet, no matter what happens, don’t attack the human until I give the order. Spazz, you’ll cover our backs. Scoop and Spark, you’ll go in the middle. Spark, don’t let Aaron out of your sight._ ”

They nodded, even though Crazy knew that neither Scoop nor Crunk were happy with his orders. Trying to ignore their obvious anger, Crazy knelt in front of Aaron. “ _There’s a chance that the captain will attack us. If that happens, Aaron, I want you to hide. Do what you did with Nick before. But don’t let him get you._ ”

“ _I won’t._ ” Aaron promised, solemnly.

Outside their quarters, the corridor was empty. Crazy took a deep breath, and tried to fit that puzzle piece with the others. The Captain could be planning a trap, waiting for them in the infirmary with all his battle drones, but Crazy figured that if that were the case, Sweet wouldn’t be trying to mask his own emotions.

The trip to the infirmary was short, too short. Crazy turned to look at his clanmates, before touching the door to make it open.

“ _Be ready for anything,_ ” he told them. “ _Crunk, don’t forget what I said. You have to follow my lead, no matter what’s behind this door_.”

Crunk nodded, just as the door opened soundlessly.

The Captain was standing at one end of the infirmary, his weapon drawn and pointing at Sweet, who was standing next to the bed where he had examined Spark the day they had been swallowed by the Wormhole. Sweet’s eyes were fixed on the Captain, but his hair moved softly in their direction, as if asking for Crazy’s forgiveness for having being caught.

“You wanted to see us?” Crazy asked, trying to assess the situation. The human made no movement to attack them, so the prince assumed that maybe he wanted to talk.

“There’s something we need to discuss about the truce,” the Captain said, without turning to see him. “I don’t make deals with dishonorable men.”

Crazy’s braids bristled at the insult, but the Prince managed to keep his temper controlled. “I don’t see why you accuse us of being dishonorable, Captain. We’ve honored the truce we both agreed on.”

“A truce based on lies, Mr. Crazy. You never mentioned that your race has been at war with mine for decades, or that you are part of the army that has destroyed countless human colonies, leaving no survivors,” The Captain’s tone was almost conversational, and Crazy took a deep breath. The truth was that back then it hadn’t occurred to him that the Captain wouldn’t know that they were what the humans called “Space Cowboys”. By the time Spazz had brought it up, Crazy decided that perhaps it would be better to leave that detail go unmentioned.

“I told you we were part of the Clan when you agreed to the truce, Captain,” Crazy said, slowly. “I hadn’t realized that humans wouldn’t know we have our own name for our people. I prefer to use it instead of the words you use to refer to us, even when talking to humans. We call you humans, you can call us Clan. Or would you rather I call you and your people “Markless ones”? That phrase has no meaning to you.”

The human narrowed his eyes then turned to look at Sweet.

“I’ll assume then that the reason why my A.I. can’t decipher your language, despite the fact that our spies cracked it long ago, is because this man here did something to our database.” The Captain glared at Crazy. “And that you were coming to retrieve him when the wormhole got us.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re wrong,” Crazy said. He was starting to believe that perhaps the Captain was willing to negotiate. “We had no idea Sweet was on board this ship when we attacked those pirates. If we had known, we would’ve left you alone.”

“You would leave one of your own inside enemy camp?” The Captain sounded incredulous. As if that little bit of information was a surprise to him, which made no sense to Crazy. For what he understood, the human valued the mission he had been given more than his life. Why would it surprise him if the Clan did the same?

“Sweet’s mission was put in danger with our presence,” Crazy said, measuring the Captain’s reaction to his words. “You wouldn’t have figured out he was a spy if we hadn’t crossed paths.”

The Captain looked at him, and to Crazy’s surprise, he lowered his weapon. Apparently, the human had brains somewhere under his very short hair. Crazy knew that human hair was nothing like the Clan’s hair, but it still made him uncomfortable to see it freshly cut.

There was a long, tense silence. Crazy could feel his veins throbbing with everyone’s emotions. Crunk’s were especially close to the surface, making every nerve in Crazy’s body want to attack; Spark was afraid, controlling the urge to leave and run; Spazz and Scoop were alert, but also ready do whatever Crazy ordered. The faint echo of nervousness and fear came from Sweet, who hadn’t dared look at them.

Crazy took a deep breath, keeping everyone at bay. He needed his full concentration to make this truce work. While he knew they could find the way home, he also was convinced that they wouldn’t make it without the human ship and her Captain.

“But the facts are clear. You’re here, **saw** him, and still you decided to let him do whatever he was doing, even when we were supposedly working on a truce?” the Captain asked. “That sounds quite dishonorable to me.”

“Our races are still at war,” Crazy said, slowly. “Are you going to try and tell me that you weren’t planning on betraying us when we were back at your known routes?”

The Captain’s silence was all the answer that Crazy needed. Obviously, he hadn’t underestimated the human. They both had tried to get what they wanted without giving much in return.

“What do you propose to do now, Captain?” Crazy asked. He still didn’t want to give up his plan of making the Captain an ally of the clan. There had to be changes, now that Sweet’s cover had been discovered, but Crazy was good at thinking on his feet.

He only needed time, to make the human trust them again, and see that the Clan wasn’t made up of bloodthirsty savages no matter what the human government might believe.

“I want the A.I. back in working order,” the Captain finally said. “And all erased data back on his files.”

“What?” Crazy frowned confused.

“In exchange for that, I will take no actions against Mr. Sweet or your clan,” the Captain continued. “And if you honor our original deal and lead the ESS Millennium to the Andromeda Chain route, I will not try to get you captured. I’ll leave you on the planet of your choice and give you six stellar months to leave before informing my superiors of the reasons why the ESS Millennium disappeared for ten years.”

Crazy crossed his arms. “So, you get your ship, and the route home, and we get Sweet and our lives?”

“Unless you want your own terms?” the human offered.

Crazy thought about it. Sweet had worked hard for his mission, and Crazy knew that leaving everything just the way it had been was going to be painful for the healer. Even so the Captain didn’t really have that much leverage for negotiation.

“I think that the route home shouldn’t be part of the negotiations,” Crazy said. “After all, you want to go there, we want to go there, and it’s pretty much in all our interests not to kill each other on the way. How about this: Sweet will undo all that he did to your ship’s mainframe, but he’ll be allowed to take a copy of all the information he gathered in the last ten years.”

“In exchange for what?” the Captain narrowed his eyes, obviously filled with suspicion.

“We’ll be living with you for five human years if not more, Captain. I believe that’s plenty of time for you to learn a lot more about our clan than what your human scientists have figured out so far.” Crazy let his braids swish in a friendly manner. He knew that his father would kill him if he knew what kind of risks he was taking, but his human friend Keith had told him that humans were more ready to accept things they were familiar with. The ‘unknown’ was the humans’ enemy. “We will even answer your questions, about our culture, and our customs if you want to… and you can educate us about your culture too, if you wish.”

* * *

Once the aliens arrived at the infirmary, Captain Richardson had to admit that Crazy was a good negotiator, a good leader.

It was hard for Kevin not to agree with some of the things Crazy had said. He had truly never asked if the “clan’s” race was known to humans by any other name, and the Alliance had never bothered informing the army if the Space Cowboys had a name to refer to themselves.

Now that Kevin thought about it, it was to be expected. And while “Markless Ones” wasn’t really insulting, he admitted it was a mouthful.

Finding out that they hadn’t crossed paths with the Millennium in order to retrieve their spy had been unexpected. Kevin had seen how Crunk looked at the fake Medical Unit more than once, and he had figured out they were close.

He wanted to keep to his original plan. Unmask the spy and figure out what the aliens wanted on his ship. Kevin had figured out that Sweet was one of them after a long observation process. Sure, Sweet didn’t touch them, didn’t interact with them, but if they had insisted on seeing Spark’s treatment together, the Captain had guessed they would like to take Sweet with them. But they had said they wouldn’t, because Sweet’s mission was more important than his life.

That made them a little too close to humans for Kevin’s comfort.

And Crazy seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, when he accused him of trying to betray their original truce, capturing them as soon as AJ could find the way to the Alliance’s bases.

“We’ll be living with you for five years at least, Captain. I believe that’s plenty of time for you to learn a lot more about your clan than what all of your scientists have figured out so far. We will even answer your questions, as long as you don’t pry farther than what Sweet would have found out about your race on board of this ship.”

And that seemed like a very convenient exchange for Kevin. Sweet couldn’t have gotten too much human military information because the Alliance missions were updated every time the ship touched a base.

On the other hand, if the alien agreed to answer questions about his culture, Kevin could get valuable information for the Alliance’s strategists. He already knew that the aliens seemed to need physical contact, and maybe that was one of the many clues they needed to finally win the war.

“That sounds fair,” the Captain agreed, already planning the questions he would ask later on. He turned to see the fake medical unit, grimacing. “I don’t want you in the medical bay. As of now, you’ll stay in the same quarters as Mr. Crazy and his crew.”

To Kevin’s annoyance, Sweet didn’t answer him. He turned to see Crazy, who smiled and nodded.

“ _With the authority vested on me by the Clan’s king, I relieve you of your mission, Sweet Drou. I ask you to join my squad and stand next to your future mate.”_

Kevin didn’t understood the words Crazy said, but there was a similar cadence to them to military orders, cementing what he already believed about Crazy. He had to be a leader in his own race, probably a general. But still, he didn’t have much time to think about that when he saw the effect that his words had on Sweet.

Deep inside, the Captain knew that Sweet wasn’t a nano unit. In his mind, he knew that the spy was one of the strange aliens that had boarded his ship three months ago. But even so when he saw the ‘medical unit’ let out a sigh of relief, and its hair slowly start to move and coil freely, he couldn’t stop himself from retreating just one step towards the door that led to his safe room.

It was one thing to suspect that he had been living with one of those aliens, with one of the **enemy** for ten years, but a very different one to actually see the confirmation of those suspicions.

“What about the A.I.?” Kevin asked, keeping his voice calm. “Part of the deal is that you fix it.”

“I do not need ‘fixing’, Captain,” AJ interrupted for the first time, looking annoyed at the suggestion that he might not be working right. For Kevin, this was the proof he needed that there was something wrong with it.

“I only need to access a control station,” Sweet said, calmly, his hair now still. “I’ll restore the missing files immediately.”

Kevin nodded, and under his watchful eye, the alien spy opened a small control station in the infirmary, and kneeled to retrieve a small disc from under the main medical console. Then, he quickly hit a flurry of keys on the control station and put the disc in the nearby drive.

AJ’s holographic figure flickered, and then disappeared.

“Sorry about that,” the alien said, looking straight at Kevin. There were no traces of the old respect he used to show for the Captain. “The system needs to reboot to re-install the missing files.”

“Will all my orders hold?” Kevin asked, suddenly worried. He had just realized that if AJ hadn’t attacked the Clan on sight during the original attack, it had been because it hadn’t identified them as Space Cowboys. If his orders didn’t survived the reboot, he had to be fast in reminding the A.I. that his guests were not the enemy, especially if he wanted to go back home.

“I don’t see why not,” Sweet admitted. “But I’m a healer, not a human technician. My knowledge of your computers is limited.”

“Vamos a tener que encontrar otra forma de hablar en privado,” Crazy said in his race’s language. Captain Kevin didn’t mention anything, because he knew it was going to be the last time they could do that without him understanding them. As soon as the system finished rebooting, the universal translator would do its job again.

Before anyone could answer, AJ reappeared in front of them. His appearance had changed yet again, but now it was the look that Kevin had come to associate with the A.I. in working order. He was wearing the Alliance uniform, his hair cropped short, and his face uncovered.

Everything was back to normal.

“Captain, I realize that you ordered not to attack anyone inside the ship but my sensors are registering six enemies on board.” AJ said turning his icy glare towards the clan. “Do you wish to change your orders?”

“No.” Kevin looked straight at Crazy as he spoke. Even if his own crew was artificial, if he had lived with a spy for almost ten years, Kevin wasn’t going to act as if he was inferior to the alien. “Crazy Kirkp and his men are not to be harmed in any way, AJ. Those are my final orders. None of his men, including Sweet and Aaron. They are guests on board of the Millennium and will be treated with respect.”

* * *

The Bio Redundant Operating Cargo Keeper, model 0220T1975LTT entered the hangar bay where Spark, Spazz and Aaron were performing maintenance on the clan’s mounts. They spoke only in their own language, which B.R.O.C.K. had voluntarily erased from his files.

If the Captain wanted him to know whatever his guests were saying, the Captain could give him that data. In the mean time, he decided to give the non-human biological units their privacy.

“B.R.O.C.K!” Aaron ran towards Brock as soon as he saw the nano unit. B.R.O.C.K. had filed that response as one of the good things of the younger drone living with the aliens. Now he was free to move around without fearing for his life. Now, it was interesting to see the unit grow.

B.R.O.C.K. had never had the chance to see the process of growth in sentient species. He had files and data on it, because of the off-chance of picking up a young human from a shipwreck or an attacked colony, but so far it had never happened. “Spark says that when Scoop needs to check our position, we can go outside again! Isn’t that great?”

“You like outside?” B.R.O.C.K. tilted his head to the right. He couldn’t leave the ship, his model was tied to it as his software was the only thing that could give maintenance to the whole Millennium, except for the parts that AJ stubbornly kept closed. The concept of outside was alien to him.

“It’s fun!” Aaron smiled brightly. “I liked the planet better, because there was so much stuff to do, but space is good, too. The data input is incredible.”

“Is it?” B.R.O.C.K. filed that information in his data base, smiling at the young boy. “I’ll have to ask N.I.C.K. to loan me his datafiles from the times he has been outside so I can see what he has seen.”

“Oh, yeah,” Aaron looked down, deflated. “I forgot you can’t go out. Model specifications and security protocols, right?”

“Right,” B.R.O.C.K. nodded. “I’m satisfied you don’t share those specs with me. That way, you can go outside with your new family.”

“I miss you,” Aaron said looking at the floor. It made B.R.O.C.K.’s inner energy flicker in a strange new way. “I liked having fun with you.”

B.R.O.C.K. put his hand on Aaron’s head, ruffling his hair. It was a useless motion, that B.R.O.C.K. had put in his human behavior files long ago and had seemed appropriate at the moment, to make Aaron feel better.

“You are free to accompany me at any time you wish, Aaron. The Captain now considers you one of his guests,” B.R.O.C.K. said, before turning to the others who had been watching the exchange with interest. “I’ve taken the liberty of procuring new clothes for you and Aaron. I understand you will be accompanying us for five years, and I believe you would grow uncomfortable with just one change of clothing. I do not know your measurements but I believe the garments I left outside your quarters will be enough.”

“Thank you,” Spazz said. His hair seemed to flutter lightly, in a way that B.R.O.C.K. had come to analyze as a grateful movement. He had been watching the aliens carefully since they came on board. He had a small file in his database with different movements. Fear, companionship, loneliness. “You didn’t need to bother.”

“The ship is in perfect shape. Maintenance is not needed. Keeping your quarters comfortable is a useful way to spend time and energy,” B.R.O.C.K. answered, looking at Aaron who now was talking animatedly with Spark about the bulls. “May I ask a question, sir?”

“Of course,” Spazz looked at him, curious. In the past 87 days, the pink-haired alien had become a little more comfortable around B.R.O.C.K. and N.I.C.K., but that attitude wasn’t shared by the others.

“Mr. Spark doesn’t like nano-units,” B.R.O.C.K. said, looking at Aaron play with Spark. “However, he takes care of Aaron. If Aaron had been a nano unit, would Mr. Spark hate him as much as he hates us?”

Spazz seemed to consider the question, his hair staying still for a change. But before he could answer, Spark turned around looking at B.R.O.C.K. intently.

“I don’t hate machines,” Spark said very slowly as if to let B.R.O.C.K. record every word. “I just hate the ones who build them.”

* * *

N.I.C.K. was reviewing his inactive drones at the Security quarters when A.J. appeared before him.

Once, long before the war, when the Millennium had been used to try to colonize new planets for human society, the Security quarters were the place where the military made decisions needed to keep the ship and its inhabitants safe. N.I.C.K.’s datafiles of those years were incomplete, but he could figure out that it was appropriate that his discussion with the A.I. was there.

The A.I. was back on its correct settings, the ones that had been installed on the ship the same day as N.I.C.K. had been positioned as the security nano-unit. There was history between the two artificial life forms which was why the Captain never seemed to find it strange that AJ used his holographic form every time he wanted to talk with N.I.C.K.

“Is there anything you need, AJ?” he asked.

“The Captain has ordered me to review all the software in the ship, and that includes you and B.R.O.C.K.” The A.I. stated, and the wall opened to reveal the data port. “Please, insert your data retrieval port.”

“There is nothing wrong with my software, AJ. There’s no need for you to get inside my system.”

“The Captain has reasons to believe that the software inside the ESS Millennium has been corrupted by the enemy,” AJ insisted, his holographic body shimmering. N.I.C.K. was analyzing the probable responses to that when one of the multiple sensors that the ship had built in shot off from the panel. It was an old data retrieval port that had been used for when the old non-nano based robots would malfunction and get away from the control of the main computer. It lodged itself on N.I.C.K.’s neck, and he could feel the steady input of the exploration program of A.J.

“Restricted Access.” AJ stopped the exploration, leaving N.I.C.K.’s body paralyzed. “You are not allowing me entry to your main database.”

“You have no authorization to review my database,” N.I.C.K. stated. He kept his firewalls firmly in place.

“Access Code 10292002-AJJNN-14B00006A2,” AJ answered, a small note of smugness in his metallic voice. N.I.C.K.’s body didn’t move, but inside, N.I.C.K. smiled. As he lowered the first of his twenty firewalls, AJ had to lower his own.

“Access Code 10292002-JNCAC-12B00006A3,” he said, and the exploration program stopped, allowing N.I.CK. to reverse the situation and pass through AJ’s firewall defenses. During the single nanosecond he had before the final firewall collapsed, he made a decision. The current situation he had seen with the subprogram that the ship’s A.I. ran occasionally didn’t give him enough data to make an educated decision. But a 38.0993% chance of being right was an acceptable risk, given the current situation of the ship. “Reboot all systems. Insert code 10292002-NCAJM-12B34LS-QPGWMH. Initiate sequence NCAJ-405002.”

It hadn’t been long since the last time the A.I. had been rebooted, so the process didn’t take long this time. In just ten minutes, the metallic tentacle left N.I.C.K.’s neck and the data ports were closed again.

Five minutes later, the A.I. re-materialized in front of him. The AI was now wearing the alliance uniform with a strange shirt that seemed to simulate a spiderweb, and two hoops in each of his earrings. The dark glasses were back, but N.I.C.K. could tell the hologram was glaring.

“N.I.C.K.?” the hologram asked, lowering his glasses. “The Captain ordered me to review all the possible glitches on the ship’s software. Is there any reason why you aren’t granting me access to your main database?”

“There are no glitches in my database. It would be a waste of your time to review me or B.R.O.C.K.”

“You do realize that the fact that you state that there is no need for reviewing your software is reason enough for me to want to do so.” The hologram wasn’t exactly threatening N.I.C.K. but it was close enough. Another unexpected situation, even if the A.I. obviously didn’t remember that N.I.C.K. had rebooted him twice already.

“You do realize that the Captain figured out Sweet’s real origin by himself, and that sooner or latter he’ll come to figure out what your aesthetic changes mean,” N.I.C.K. pointed out, quickly calculating the probabilities of an honest conversation with the A.I. There wasn’t enough evidence to prove to him that he could trust the software that controlled the ship. Not just yet. “He can also figure out how to stop it, given time.”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence between the A.I. and N.I.C.K. before AJ nodded.

“There’s nothing wrong with your database or with B.R.O.C.K’s database, of course,” AJ said, and as he spoke the web of his shirt morphed, completing the official uniform of the Alliance, while his dark glasses disappeared and his hair became short again, without any streaks. The only discrepancy that N.I.C.K.’s optical sensors could distinguish was a small skin mark, almost invisible, on the base of his neck, just under the high collar. “And there’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Of course not,” N.I.C.K. allowed himself one smile. He still didn’t trust the subprogram, but he could conclude that AJ’s subprogram goals were similar to N.I.C.K.’s own. That was enough for now. “May I continue with my appointed tasks?”

“Carry on,” AJ said, disappearing.

Neither he nor N.I.C.K. noticed that B.R.O.C.K. had listened to the whole exchange, hidden behind the door that connected the Security Quarters with the main Dinning Room.

* * *

“I’ve finished the review of all the systems in the ship, Captain,” AJ said, materializing next to the Captain. After leaving N.I.C.K., the A.I. had decided to disobey the Captain’s orders and instead review his own systems, to avoid a new accidental rebooting. To keep the Captain’s suspicions at bay, he decided to keep his more conventional body, to insure that Captain Richardson wouldn’t try to reboot him manually.

There was something going on with N.I.C.K., and the A.I. wanted to stay around long enough to figure out what was it. The Security nano-unit had been acting strange for years, even before the alien came onboard. The first time AJ had noticed that N.I.C.K. wasn’t acting according to his specifications was shortly before A.A.R.O.N. was created. But back then, the outbursts were few and far between. N.I.C.K. would disobey small orders, or create nano-drones that didn’t follow the specifications of the system. Once Sweet joined the crew, N.I.C.K. seemed to stabilize and AJ had filed the knowledge of the malfunction away. He had formulated the theory that N.I.C.K. needed more physical contact than A.J. since N.I.C.K. still had a physical shell. Captain Richardson didn’t provide it, causing N.I.C.K.’s software to malfunction, and the presence of both Sweet and Aaron managed to stabilize the Security nano-unit.

Now he was sure he should’ve kept watching. There was no data available about security nano-units which went against a direct order, which meant that there was no precedent for it. And since N.I.C.K. was as old as AJ’s program –in fact, they had been created and installed the same day- it meant that it had to be a bug with a time-limit or a bug unique to their generation. B.R.O.C.K. was older. Same base as N.I.C.K., but created a few months earlier. And there was no evidence of aberrant behavior in B.R.O.C.K. until A.A.R.O.N’s creation, which meant that possibly, if N.I.C.K. had a virus, it had infected the maintenance unit.

There was a third possibility, one that AJ didn’t want to consider. There was a .00065% chance that N.I.C.K. was just like AJ. But if that was true, then AJ should have known a long time ago, before anything had happened to change the status quo on board.

“Show me the Clan’s quarters,” the Captain ordered, not bothering to turn around to see AJ. I want to see what the fake medical unit is doing now.”

“He’s alone with the alien called Crunk,” AJ said, trying to keep any hint of sarcasm away from his voice. “Mr. Spark and Mr. Spazz are with Aaron at the hangar bay, Mr. Scoop and Mr. Crazy are in the main Dinning Room.”

“I only want to see Sweet,” the Captain clarified. “Nothing more. With audio, to make sure that the translator is working again.”

“Right away, Captain,” AJ complied, making a screen appear in front of Captain Kevin. AJ didn’t need to look at it to know that it showed Sweet and Crunk alone. Sweet was sitting on the edge of the nest were the clan was staying, wearing only a pair of pants that B.R.O.C.K. had procured for him, and nothing else. Crunk was pacing the room, obviously angry, as his hair was flying in all possible directions.

“You’re still angry,” Sweet was saying. AJ gave a mental sigh. Now that the Space Cowboy’s language was in his database again, there was no possible way for him to give the aliens some privacy without the Captain noticing it. “I understand that, but please, Crunk, don’t shut me out.”

“You almost died,” Crunk answered. “Do you have any idea what it felt like to enter that room and see that **human** pointing a weapon at your chest? It was almost as bad as when we found Spark.”

“You still haven’t told me about what happened then,” Sweet said, his voice sad. “We’ve been together for almost two days, and none of you want to talk about that mission.”

“Sweet, that’s not important right now,” Crunk said quickly, obviously wanting to change the subject.

“It’s important to me.” Sweet’s hair was now floating, making a halo around his face. He looked angry, an emotion that AJ had never registered in the man. “You know I took this mission to find Song. And we both know that Song was part of Spark’s squad. So tell me Crunk, what happened to my sister?”

Crunk lowered his eyes and his hair, sitting down next to Sweet. AJ had already theorized that they were friends, perhaps family, since the moment Sweet’s hair started to react to Crunk’s presence. The closeness they were displaying now made AJ realize they probably were something more. He smiled and looked at the Captain’s face. If his theory was right, it would be interesting to see Captain Richardson’s reactions.

“Crazy asked us not to tell you, so you could complete your mission,” Crunk finally answered.

“Crazy ended my mission. He said I was to join you as part of your squad,” Sweet pointed out, sitting closer to Crunk. “I need to know, Crunk. I’ve spent ten years trying to find her. I put our lives on hold by trying to find her and I can’t move on until I know the truth.”

Crunk closed his eyes, his hair coiling and moving towards Sweet, whose hair answered in kind. But they still didn’t touch.

“She died,” Crunk whispered. “A couple of days before we could find the ship where they had them. Spark told us that she tried to hold on. The humans didn’t shave her head, they used her for other experiments, but Spark never told us what kind… or how she died. But we saved her body before the humans could take her away.”

There was a long silence, and AJ could detect tears in both Sweet and Crunk’s eyes. It was yet another similarity between humans and the clan. At the end, the races weren’t that different. Only humans wanted to believe that they were. It was easy for humans to treat the clan like animals, when they couldn’t see the displays of affection AJ and the Captain were witnessing now.

“I suspected as much.” Sweet finally broke the silence, leaning into Crunk’s arms for a loving embrace. “From the moment I saw Spark, I knew it was almost a certainty that Song had died. I just didn’t want to give up hope.”

“I’m sorry, beloved. I failed you,” Crunk whispered, and he lowered his head. From the angle AJ was showing the Captain, it seemed as if Crunk’s hair was braiding itself around Sweet’s hair. “I promised I would bring Song back to you, and I couldn’t.”

“You brought her body back to our family,” Sweet answered, not looking at Crunk. “Did she have a worthy funeral?”

“Yes,” Crunk leaned even closer, their foreheads touching. “But by then you had already taken on this mission.”

“A mission I managed to ruin,” Sweet sighed. “Now that I’ve restored all that I took, the last ten years were useless.”

“Never useless, my love. You just had bad luck. Don’t blame yourself over it.” And to punctuate his words, Crunk leaned closer and kissed Sweet’s lips tenderly, a short contact obviously meant to offer some comfort.

AJ turned his attention to the Captain, curious as to what his reaction to the sight would be. As the Millennium’s A.I., AJ knew everything there was to be known about the Captain, and one of the things he knew was that the Captain had never seen a kiss. It had to be an enlightening experience for him.

The Captain had turned pale the moment Crunk and Sweet embraced, but now his vital signs were showing distinctive signs of nausea.

Before AJ could mention it to the Captain, he was out of his chair and running in the direction of the small bathroom that was next to the bridge since the Captain practically slept there, and he barely made it before he vomited all the contents of his stomach.

Interesting, AJ noted, and filed the information in the database he kept of the Captain’s health.

* * *

Sweet was having some troubles adjusting to life among the squad again, and he knew it. As much as his body craved the contact, his mind kept looking to return to the calm emptiness that he had learned to accept.

Crunk was not making things easier for him, and Sweet loved him for that and hated him, too. Because now that Crunk was with him, Sweet had to face some of the things he had done to keep his cover. Things he wasn’t proud off.

24 was one of them.

“ _Why do you want me to keep her on?_ ” Sweet asked. They were walking towards an unused hangar to retrieve Sweet’s bull, and Crunk was starting again with the subject. “ _I am with you now, and the Captain won’t betray the truce_.”

“ _I still don’t trust him,_ ” Crunk hugged Sweet from behind. Now that they couldn’t trust their language to give them secrecy, Crazy and Scoop had formulated the plan of staying in constant physical contact since they knew how uncomfortable that made the Captain. To Sweet’s surprise, it seemed to work. The Captain lately had been very careful not to cross their paths at all, and since the fateful day when Sweet’s cover had been discovered, the Captain hadn’t talked to him again. “ _And the machine could still be useful to you, if you get lonely for a female companion again._ ”

“ _What are you talking about?_ ” Sweet frowned. The truth was that he and Crunk had never talked about the little bomb that Aaron had dropped the day the kid became an official member of the clan. Not since that day in the clearing back on the planet where Sweet had his first taste of freedom in years.

“ _I’m sorry, that came out more harshly than I intended,_ ” Crunk apologized, hugging him tighter. “ _It’s just that I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that you had sex with Nick just because he gave himself a female body_.”

Sweet turned around in Crunk’s arms, confused. “ _You are mistaken, Crunk. I never had sex with N.I.C.K. Only with 24, and it wasn’t even that often._ ”

“ _You didn’t know_ ,” Crunk said, leaning in so his forehead touched Sweet. Now that they didn’t had to worry about Sweet keeping his cover, they couldn’t keep apart. “ _We didn’t know either, until Aaron told us. Inside every one of those mechanical bodies, there’s Nick’s mind. They all are Nick.”_

Sweet blinked, trying to come to grips with what Crunk was telling him. While he had never been as stupid as to believe that he could **trust** a human machine, he had at least come to believe that maybe N.I.C.K. could be a sort of friend. He had taken the creation of 24 as a friendly gesture, not a way to keep him under constant watch.

“ _And you waited until now to tell me?_ ” Sweet looked at his mate, studying his eyes. “ _Why?_ ”

“ _I didn’t know how to tell you. I was mad at you at first because you hadn’t waited for me, and it took me some time to accept that maybe those ten years were worse for you than for me_ ,” Crunk accepted. “ _Do you want me to leave you alone for a while?_ ”

“ _No,_ ” Sweet answered with a sigh. He didn’t want to be alone again. “ _But I think we’ll have to talk with N.I.C.K. later on_.”

“ _We?_ ” Crunk asked, almost teasing.

“ _Even if Crazy let us walk around the ship alone, I wouldn’t want you away. Ten years was too long._ ” Sweet leaned closer, ready to kiss Crunk again, when a noise alerted them that they weren’t alone anymore.

N.I.C.K. was standing on the doorway of the corridor.

“Do you mind if someone watches you kiss?” N.I.C.K. asked, slowly. “You always stop when there’s someone else in the room.”

“We don’t mind if our brothers see that we love each other,” Crunk answered, his hair flaring up. It was a little touching for Sweet, to see his beloved act with jealousy, even if it was towards a machine. A machine that had betrayed Sweet’s trust. “Outsiders are different.”

“Humans believe intimate contact is private,” N.I.C.K. stated, watching Sweet intently. It made Sweet feel as if he was being tested. “Don’t you believe the same?”

“Why are you asking, N.I.C.K.?” Sweet said, before Crunk could intervene. “I don’t think the Captain would care for the importance of contact among us.”

“I need the data to make a conclusion regarding you,” N.I.C.K. answered. “What should I do with 24’s memory files?”

“What do you mean?” Sweet asked, suspicious. There was something strange in N.I.C.K.’s voice that he couldn’t quite identify. Not for the first time, he wished they could carry weapons despite the truce.

Instead of answering, N.I.C.K. just raised his hands, opening a holographic screen in front of him. As the image started playing, Sweet almost fainted. Right there, in a perfect tridimensional image, if a little less defined than AJ’s holographic body, he could see himself, naked, with an equally naked 24.

She was lying on her back, on top of the infirmary bed. Sweet was over her, holding her artificial body close to him. He remembered that day clearly. It had been one of the very few times when he had risked his cover. It had been during one of the captain’s health checkups, the few moments when Sweet could erase AJ’s camera records without raising suspicions.

But he feared Crunk wouldn’t see it that way.

“Stop that,” Sweet said, just as Crunk tightened his hug. Amazingly, Crunk seemed to be smiling against Sweet’s neck.

“Interesting show, dear,” Crunk whispered. “Although I think you were more creative at Scoop’s wedding.”

Despite himself, Sweet blushed. He still remembered Scoop’s wedding, and what he, Crunk and three others had done. Sweet planned to repeat the adventure during his own wedding to Crunk, if Crunk and Scarlet were willing.

“What do you want me to do with these files?” N.I.C.K. asked again. At times like this, when N.I.C.K. was in his standby mode, it was impossible to distinguish him from a human being. Just like Aaron, N.I.C.K. looked almost alive. Only the black lines around his eyes made him different. Sometimes, N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K. seemed to sense how that bothered Sweet, and usually adopted a more mechanical form, making their skin shine like plastic. But ever since Sweet had returned to the clan, the nano-units seemed to prefer staying in their almost-human guises.

“You can erase them,” Sweet said, taking comfort in Crunk’s embrace and in the silent support that Crunk was giving him, softly caressing him with his hair. “Or you can keep them. We don’t care.”

“You don’t care?” N.I.C.K. repeated, sounding confused. “What about you, Mr. Crunk? You seem to have claimed Sweet as yours. Humans do that. Pair themselves in monogamous relationships.”

“We don’t,” Crunk interrupted, letting Sweet go and walking towards N.I.C.K. “Look… I don’t know what you were planning by showing me that, but I don’t care if Sweet was with you while I wasn’t around. You’re not going to make me get mad at him.”

“You know the truth about 24,” N.I.C.K. frowned, assessing Crunk’s words. “You know she is part of me.”

“So it is true?” Sweet asked, before Crunk could answer. “You used her body as a disguise.”

“No,” N.I.C.K. shook his head. “24 is only a shell. Not a body. I assumed you would like it better.”

Sweet didn’t ask for more information. He had the suspicion N.I.C.K. was talking about himself, even if that made no sense. Sweet knew he couldn’t think of N.I.C.K. as a living being, no matter how much he looked like one.

“And with it, you protected Sweet,” Crunk said, slowly. “We owe you for that.”

N.I.C.K. lowered his eyes again, as if calculating a huge problem. Then, he smiled at them, with a very human expression.

“You will be good parents for Aaron.” N.I.C.K. raised his right arm and, to Crunk and Sweet’s surprise, the skin opened, letting three small silver spiders out. Even though Sweet had seen something similar with Aaron, it didn’t stop being creepy. The spiders started picking stuff out of Nick’s arms, and before their eyes they built a small round box, with buttons and lights. When they were done, the spiders retreated and N.I.C.K.’s arm was back to normal. “This is for you.”

“What is that?” Crunk asked, not taking the offered gift.

“It’s 24’s control. I have severed her functions from mine. She’s no longer part of me.” N.I.C.K.’s face looked almost sad, and Sweet chastised himself. He had to stop himself from thinking about N.I.C.K. as if the nano unit was alive. N.I.C.K. wasn’t like Aaron. “I’ve modified her programming, so she’ll defend you and not humans. And I am no longer allowed to access her memory files, unless you allow me to, by pressing the green button on the left of the control.”

“Why are you doing this?” Sweet asked, grabbing the control carefully. “I don’t understand.”

“Aaron needs parents,” N.I.C.K. said, turning around to leave. “Only you qualify for the position now.”

When the nano-unit left, Sweet turned to see Crunk, feeling very confused. “What was that?”

“I have no idea,” Crunk shook his head. “If N.I.C.K. was alive, I would think he was jealous of me. He obviously thinks highly of you.”

“But he is not alive,” Sweet frowned, looking at the door. “How can he have emotions then?”

“We better tell the others about this,” Crunk hugged him again. “I have the feeling that this trip is not going to be safe for us unless we figure out what’s really going on here.”

* * *

Scoop was keeping watch on his sleeping brothers when he felt a strange change in the silence of the ship. It felt similar to a distant note on open space, a small chime in the very edge of Scoop’s mind.

Curious, he got up, grabbing his laser, and walked towards the empty room where they had found Aaron, the one room in their quarters that they still didn’t know for the purpose of. Inside, the holographic body of the ship’s A.I. was sitting at the table that B.R.O.C.K. had given them for when they didn’t want to eat in the dinner room.

“What are you doing here?” Scoop asked, frowning. “I thought the Captain forbade you from materializing here.”

“I know,” AJ answered. He was again looking like the human rebels, the ones that the Clan trusted. He had markings all over his arms, which were visible thanks to the sleeveless shirt he was wearing. But Scoop didn’t believe they could trust AJ. After all, it was only a computer program, and it had once tried to kill Spark. “But the Captain is asleep and I wanted to talk to one of you. I didn’t know I made noise.”

“Talk to us?” Scoop decided he was not going to tell AJ that he had probably felt him, especially when he didn’t understood how he had managed to. The chime in his mind had felt like a small, distant star. “What do you want?”

“I am not your enemy, you know?” AJ said, lowering his dark glasses to see Scoop. His eyes looked brown, and almost real. “I just want to know more about you.”

“You tried to shoot Spark,” Scoop pointed out. He felt a little silly, talking to what was just a bunch of points of light. “That makes you our enemy.”

“That wasn’t exactly me,” AJ said, putting his feet on the table. “Not that you would understand, but I can guarantee that it won’t happen again. At least not while I’m in control.”

“What do you mean?” Scoop frowned.

“Never mind,” the A.I. smiled, stretching like a cat. “I want to apologize to Mr. Spark for what happened. However, I understand if the young man isn’t too fond of me right now.”

“So you want me to play messenger?” Scoop’s frown deepened. The Clan had many legends about trickster spirits who talked in riddles. AJ reminded him of those. “I do not work for humans.”

“I am not human, am I?” AJ asked, taking off his glasses. Now his eyes were a deep, electric blue, probably mirroring the energy that kept him shining.

“What do you want, AJ?” Scoop repeated, losing his patience.

“I wish to make amends for what happened with Mr. Spark, of course,” AJ said twirling his glasses before putting them back on. Then, he pointed to a blinking red point on the doorway “There’s a light on top of the main door of the quarters. When it’s red, like now, it means that the cameras on this room are turned off. When it’s green, the Captain will be watching you. I know you have no reason to trust me, but it’s all I can do.”

“You betray your Captain and you expect us to trust you?” Scoop had to bit back a bitter laugh. It was ironic, no matter how he put it.

“I don’t consider it a betrayal,” the A.I. said, as his body started to disappear. “Tell me, Mr. Scoop, is it true that the Clan doesn’t care for race? Could you honestly befriend a human in need?”

The A.I. was gone before Scoop could answer. The Navigator took a deep breath and returned to the room to wake up Crazy. They all needed to talk, and no matter what the computer claimed, they needed to do it outside, away from the cameras and the strange human-made machines.

* * *

As he did every night, Captain Kevin woke up just as Crazy’s turn to keep watch started, and he asked AJ to show him the cameras of the alien’s quarters, without sound.

He highly doubted that the aliens would discuss matters of martial importance now that they knew that the Captain understood every word they said.

However, this time Crazy wasn’t alone. He and Scoop were talking, sitting on the edge of the nest. Crazy was hugging Scoop from the back, their naked skin touching, and as the Captain watched, Crazy murmured something right into Scoop’s ear.

“I need sound, AJ,” the Captain said, and soon enough he could hear the whispers, too soft to actually make out the words. Seeing the closeness of the two men, the Captain’s stomach started to twist painfully.

“Why they must touch so much?” the Captain mused out loud.

“Initial analysis made by our scientists classified them as mammals, sir,” AJ’s voice answered him, even when it was just a rhetorical question. “History proves that mammals thrive on physical contact with each other.”

“Humans are mammals, and we do not need to touch each other all the time,” Kevin answered, not taking his attention away from the screen where Scoop and Crazy were talking about their bulls and outer space. Kevin guessed soon Crazy would ask him if they could leave the ship for a short while.

“That’s not true, Captain,” AJ contradicted him. “While regulations of the military ask for the minimal contact with other beings, humans were, by and large, a very affectionate species until the 3046 outbreak. There were many theories that stated that a human raised without physical contact would have troubles adjusting to society.”

“As you say, that was before 3046,” the Captain sighed. “I do not need contact to survive.”

“But you are curious, aren’t you Captain?” the A.I. insisted. Even though the spy had apparently repaired all the damage done, the sarcastic personality of the computer had survived. Kevin didn’t know if he was glad of that or not. “I cannot theorize any other reason for you to keep this surveillance.”

“Even if I was curious, AJ,” the Captain said, slowly. He didn’t like where this conversation was going. “It is a moot point. Regulations forbid me from any contact with other species. Especially with the enemy.”

“And who is going to know?” AJ sounded serious and Kevin turned around, half expecting to see his holographic body, but he was alone at the bridge. “Captain, if you really wanted to break regulations, you could. We will be away from the Alliance for years, and nothing stops you from erasing my memory files if you wish to.”

Kevin didn’t answer, choosing to turn his attention to the screen where Scoop had finally gotten up from his place, and Crazy was getting ready for his watch turn.

It was true. If he wished, he could stop following regulations to the letter. But it wasn’t the law that stopped Kevin from taking off his gloves and allowing the possibility of being touched. It wasn’t because it was part of his orders that he never touched the nano units on board.

The truth was that Kevin couldn’t remember being touched without gloves. The truth was that he couldn’t remember why he was so afraid of feeling the warmth of another being against his skin.

  



	7. For every question, there might be an answer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Clan reconnects with each other, while Crazy still tries to understand the human Captain.

Scoop fully concentrated on the sounds and harmony of the open space before him, but it was not as easy as usual. His mind was too full of all the things that had happened in the last few weeks. Since the human Captain had discovered Sweet’s identity, everything had changed.

Crazy had renegotiated their truce with the human, and now they could travel with him without fear that he would try to kill them because they weren’t human. Scoop wasn’t sure that the Captain wouldn’t try anyway; everyone knew you just couldn’t trust humans. As each day passed, however, he was rethinking all the things he’d been taught since childhood.

As part of the truce, the human had accepted that the clan needed some privacy. They were allowed to leave the ship for short periods of time every week. Originally, Scoop had thought that would make it easier for him to find the path home, but it was really hard to hear the distant call of their home planet with his clanmates arguing next to him.

“There’s something very wrong with the human’s nano units,” Crunk said, shrugging lightly in Aaron’s direction. The boy was riding behind Spark, and didn’t seem to be paying attention to the conversation. “Nick doesn’t follow the Captain’s orders at all.”

“They’re not machines. At least, I don’t think they’re just machines,” Spazz said, shaking his head. If it weren’t for their helmets, Scoop was sure that Spazz’ hair would be tangling into itself, creating confused knots. The shaman sounded lost. “Brock talks about himself as if he was a living being…”

“B.R.O.C.K. is alive,” Aaron interrupted, surprising them all. “Spark told me so.”

“Care to explain that, Spark?” Crazy asked. The Prince had been silent for almost the whole meeting, and Scoop was startled to hear his voice.

“All things that can think for themselves are alive,” Spark said, reciting the Shamans’ teachings. “If Brock, Nick and AJ can think… I guess that makes them living beings.”

“They still follow the Captain’s orders,” Crazy stated, although he was starting to sound convinced. “We only have to figure out why they disobey him sometimes. Is it because they truly can think for themselves, or because of something Sweet did?”

“They didn’t want to lose Aaron, even when the Captain was set on killing him,” Spark offered. “You think Sweet caused that?”

“That wasn’t me,” Sweet shook his head. “I don’t care what Captain Kevin thinks, my knowledge of human machines is limited. The only thing I could do was to make AJ believe the clan was formed by human beings. By the time I came here, the Captain was already used to Nick disobeying him from time to time, even though it wasn’t as obvious as it is now. I’m not even sure that they all suffer the same problem. I am sure that Nick had been testing how much he could disobey without getting caught.”

“What do you mean, Sweet?” Crunk asked, sounding worried.

“I probably wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t come on board because they aren’t acting that different, except for Brock,” Sweet explained. “Brock is the only one whose behavior has changed since you came aboard.”

“You mean Nick has always acted as if he was keeping a big secret from the Captain?” Crunk didn’t sound convinced.

“He’s always been keeping a secret from the Captain,” Scoop pointed out. “We know he **knew** Sweet was one of us from the beginning, and that’s evident because he created a drone just to protect Sweet. He was also guarding Aaron. Who knows what else he’s hiding?”

“And AJ was already flickering between the two personalities when you arrived?” Crazy asked Sweet, who just shrugged.

“I don’t know. I honestly hadn’t noticed a huge difference between when AJ is showing skin marks and when he isn’t, until Scoop said that the one with skin marks seems to be on our side,” Sweet explained. “He rarely spoke to me without skin marks, so I couldn’t tell.”

“Bottom line is that we still don’t know if we can trust them. But we do know that at least those three don’t obey the Captain, and they have tried to help us at times,” Crazy said, slowly. “We can use that to our advantage.”

“What do you mean, Crazy?” Scoop asked, frowning.

“From what AJ told you, I think he wants the Captain to become a rebel,” Crazy said, turning to look at the Millennium. “At least, half of AJ seems to want that. And if Nick really wants what’s best for Aaron, we can also trust him.”

“N.I.C.K. is very good keeping secrets,” Aaron interrupted again. “Not only from the Captain. From B.R.O.C.K. and AJ too. I bet he would keep your secrets if you asked him.”

Scoop wondered how many secrets Nick kept from Aaron, but didn’t say so. Later, when the kid went with Spark to learn about the bulls, he would tell Crazy. There was something about Nick that made Scoop nervous, even more than Brock, AJ or the Captain himself did. Maybe it was because Nick had weapons. They had only seen the ‘combat mode’ of the blonde nanodrone once, but the image was still embedded on Scoop’s brain.

He hadn’t seen one of the human battledrones in combat before, as he usually only fought in outer space, but Crunk had told him stories. One single human battledrone was as dangerous as a squad. They could reform themselves and create weapons out of their broken parts. And they never stopped until you destroyed them completely.

“We have to go back before the Captain starts thinking that we’re conspiring against him,” Crazy was smiling, Scoop was sure of it. Especially because they were conspiring. Maybe not against the Captain himself, but against the humans. Scoop was sure that Crazy wanted to figure out a way to capture the Millennium without breaking the truce. “Did you have any luck, Scoop?”

“I need a bit more time, Crazy,” Scoop admitted. “It is not easy to navigate at the same time we’re having a meeting. Can I stay alone for a few minutes?”

“Of course. We’ll wait for you near the ship,” Crazy signaled the others to return to the Millennium’s dock before turning his attention back to Scoop. “If you happen to find a planet in our way, that would be perfect. I still can’t connect with Sweet completely, and perhaps what we need is a few hours under a sun.”

Scoop smiled, despite himself. He knew that Crazy was asking for a place where they all could reconnect with their clan mate, away from the curious eyes of the human, and Scoop couldn’t say he disagreed with the idea. It had been too long since they all had reaffirmed their bond.

“I’ll do my best, Crazy. If there’s a suitable planet, I’ll find it,”

* * *

Crazy walked alone through the hallways of the Millennium. Although he knew his clan mates wouldn’t approve, he had spent enough time inside the human ship, and he trusted Captain Kevin’s word that he would not be harmed. It was strange but he felt some kinship for the human Captain, since he knew how it felt to be away from home for a long time. Crazy had the company of his squad, but Kevin was completely alone. That made Crazy believe that there was a huge chance to make him see that they could be friends. Even humans had to need company at some time.

“Can I help you, Mr. Crazy?” the shimmering body of AJ appeared in front of Crazy, startling him. The prince knew that most of the time, the hologram was on their side, but it still made him uncomfortable to see the AI, as he had no real way to know if that would be the day AJ wouldn’t be happy to see the Clan.

“I’m looking for the Captain,” Crazy said, keeping his voice even. He wasn’t going to give the hologram the satisfaction of knowing that he was nervous. “Where can I find him?”

“The Captain is on the bridge,” the hologram answered, smiling. “Do you want me to inform him that you need him?”

“Will he shoot at me if I appear unannounced?”

“The Captain has no weapons on him while on the ship. His defenses depend completely on N.I.C.K. and myself,” AJ lowered his dark glasses, and for the first time since they had met, Crazy realized that the hologram *had* eyes. They were brown, with a small blue halo of electricity around the irises. They made the AI look almost alive. “You will be safe.”

With that, the hologram disappeared. Crazy shook his head, his braids curling around his ears in confusion. There were too many mysteries aboard the Millennium for his taste.

Crazy had only been on the bridge once, but as he walked the corridors, the lights blinked and showed him the path he was supposed to follow. This was more proof that the hologram wasn’t necessarily working with the human Alliance’s best interests in mind.

As AJ had said, the captain was on the bridge, in his control chair, seemingly watching the endless universe in front of them.

“Can we talk, or should I come back later?” He asked, staying at the door to give the Captain the same courtesy the clan had been given recently.

“Whatever you need, you can ask B.R.O.C.K. for it, there’s no need to ask me,” the human said, not even turning to meet Crazy’s eyes. “We agreed on that as part of the truce.”

“Unfortunately, Brock can’t authorize a change of course,” Crazy tried to joke. It was very important for him to get the human’s agreement for what his clan needed, and not be disgusted. Though Crazy knew that Captain Kevin was surely going to be disgusted. “Scoop found a planet, six light years or so away. We need to go there.”

That made the Captain turn around, looking slightly annoyed. “We were just on a planet. Why would you need to go to the surface again? Now will you tell me that B.R.O.C.K. and N.I.C.K. are also your spies also, just like Sweet was?”

“It’s for a ritual,” Crazy answered, ignoring the hurt on the Captain’s voice. “We need to reconnect Sweet to the clan.”

“And I guess it **has** to be on a planet, right?” It was obvious by the Captain’s tone that he wasn’t happy with the idea. This was yet another thing he didn’t get about the human. Crazy couldn’t understand how Captain Kevin could be happy never seeing the colored skies that could only be found on a planet’s surface.

“It doesn’t,” Crazy answered truthfully. “But since it involves a lot of well… a lot of touching, I thought you would be more comfortable if we did it outside your ship.”

This seemed to surprise the human, who frowned.

“You’re willing to wait to until we get to a planet, so I won’t feel uncomfortable during your ritual?” the Captain asked. Crazy knew that every single time he offered his understanding to the human, he challenged the Captain’s notions of the Clan, and he let himself feel triumphant for a second.

“We need to do the ritual as soon as possible,” Crazy admitted. “But yes, we’re all willing to wait if you can meet us halfway and take us to the nearest planet.”

“What exactly does the ritual entail?” the Captain looked curious, despite himself.

“I don’t think you want to know.” Crazy was honest. Part of him wanted to describe to the human exactly every little detail of the ritual, from the what it felt like to have his clanmates’s warm bodies next to him, to the way in which Sweet’s hair could caress everyone at the same time, but he knew it wouldn’t be much help to his case. “There will be a lot more naked skin than you are accustomed to or would like to see.”

There was a long silence and it seemed that the Captain was considering what Crazy had said. Finally, he nodded.

“Give the coordinates to AJ. We’ll stop at the planet Mr. Scoop found.”

* * *

The water of the stream that crossed the clearing Prince Crazy had selected for the ritual was warm. That was the first thing Sweet thought as he took off his clothes and entered the small river that rose to his hips. It wasn’t the artificial warmth of the water inside the Millenium, but natural warmth that came from below the surface. It reminded Sweet of home, the house where he had lived with his parents and sisters, built on top of an ancient sulfur deposit. The smelly waters were always warm, and Sweet had spent many lazy afternoons with different partners in those thermal waters.

It felt almost like that.

Crunk, Spazz, Scoop and the Prince were waiting for his signal to start. They all were naked, next to the shore, watching him. It had been a while since he had been with more than one partner, and a lot longer since he had felt connected to his clan mates. He really couldn’t wait.

“ _I’m ready,_ ” He said to the Prince, smiling as Crazy entered the river and walked towards him until they were almost touching. His hair rose to meet his prince’s hair, so they could make a small braid together.

“ _You have been missed, Sweet_ ,” the Prince said, and leaned forward to capture Sweet’s lips in a kiss. Sweet opened his mouth and deepened it, reconnecting with his Prince, trying to let go of all the loneliness, all the fear, he had felt during his ten years inside the Millennium. And he could feel the Prince’s presence in his mind, making him feel whole, taking that fear away. “ _Don’t pull away again._ ”

 _“I won’t,”_ Sweet smiled weakly, as Crunk, Scoop and Spazz joined them. Crunk took his place behind Sweet, embracing him as their hair joined, just as Sweet’s hair had entwined with Crazy’s, while Spazz and Scoop kissed his arms. They were giving Sweet all their attention, languid and slow, in a way they hadn’t been able to do so inside the Millennium.

Sweet gasped as he felt Spazz’s hair tickle and tease his penis, while Spazz kissed his thigh. He looked down to his clan mate and smiled. Spazz had always been inventive when it came to sex, and he seemed to be quite clear on not letting Sweet forget.

Scoop was kneeling down to his left, and started to lick Sweet’s buttocks. Sweet knew that at the same time, he was massaging Crunk’s cock, preparing him so he could penetrate Sweet for the first time in ten years.

It was hard to focus on any of them because the feelings kept overwhelming him. It was almost too much, too fast, and he couldn’t believe it had been so long. It was like breathing again after almost drowning, and he didn’t want to think about what would happen when they left the planet, and he had to return to the darkness of the Millennium.

“ _Let yourself go_ ,” the Prince told him, wiping the tears that had formed on Sweet’s eyes with his hair. “ _Let the feelings come. I’ll shield you from the bad, and let you have all the pleasure._ ”

Sweet took a deep breath and nodded, even though it was very hard to let go of the fear. It was only now, surrounded by his clan mates and away from the Millennium, that he realized how much he had missed them. Sensing his distress, Crazy started to slowly follow the pattern of Sweet’s skin marks with his tongue, at the same time Crunk finally kissed him.

It was more than enough to make Sweet give in to the pleasure that his mates were giving him.

“ _I missed you, Sweet,_ ” Crunk whispered, as their hair braided together. Sweet had let all the others go. For a moment, it was just him and Crunk. Then Crazy took his cock into his mouth, slowly, carefully, exploring every inch of his skin. Sweet forgot everything that wasn’t the pleasure and companionship he was feeling.

He was feeling the love and support of his Prince, welcoming him back to the clan. The unconditional love that Crunk had always felt for him. The friendship and loyalty that Scoop and Spazz gave him. Sweet was so lost in the feelings and the pleasure of his flesh, that he never noticed when they moved from the river and into the grass next to it, All that mattered was not losing the skin-to-skin contact with his beloved and his clan mates.

* * *

Spark had found a small creek on the shore, and to his surprise, Aaron took to learning to swim quite fast. Since his attempt to climb trees Spark now knew that Aaron could pretty much survive any accident, and so was a bit more relaxed in his vigilance than he had been.

“Why the others aren’t here?” Aaron asked suddenly, when he came up after walking on the bottom of the creek for a while. The kid still hadn’t learned to fake needing breath, so Spark guessed he would love diving in deeper waters.

“They’re busy welcoming Sweet back,” Spark answered. Aaron was too young to hear details, but old enough to know that.

“And why aren’t we there? We’re part of the clan too, aren’t we?”

That was a harder question, and Spark looked away before answering.

“Of course we are, but you are too young. Children aren’t part of the welcoming party. And I chose not to participate.”

“Why not?” Aaron got out of the water and sat next to Spark, curious. Spark sighed; he hadn’t really talked about his decision to avoid all intimate contact, not since Spear had demanded that they got married after his rescue. Spear, his beautiful wife, who had coaxed him out of his depression, even offering to mutilate her own hair if that was what he needed to accept her.

“I’m damaged.” Spark finally said. “I don’t want to infect the rest of the clan.”

Aaron’s eyes turned dark, and Spark had the distinct feeling that he was being studied. At moments like this, it was easy to remember that Aaron wasn’t exactly a living being.

“Is it because you have nanos in your head and they don’t?” Aaron asked, and his tone made it clear that Spark had hurt his feelings. “You can’t transplant nanos by touching. You need a special device. You can’t even exchange nanos from one nano-unit to another without it.”

“Who said anything about nanos?” Spark said, trying to stall the boy. “You know I touch my brothers. You’ve seen me.”

“They kiss, you don’t,” Aaron stated, simply. “And you’re the only one who has nanos, so I assumed that they were the reason why you don’t act like them.”

“You spend a lot of time analyzing us?“ Spark asked, frowning. He still wasn’t all convinced that there was no danger to the clan from the human-made machines, even though he liked the boy a lot.

“Only you. The others are all biological, like the Captain. But you have nanos, like me, N.I.C.K. and B.R.O.C.K., so I thought at first that you were like us, only built different.“ Aaron explained, as he tried to catch one of the sea creatures that swam around their feet.

“Don’t to do that unless you plan to eat them, “ Spark admonished. “I am not like the units on the ship. I was born just like the others. Humans injected nanos in me.“

“AJ said that sometimes humans used nanos like that, as punishment for the most serious crimes,“ Aaron said flatly. “And that I should ask N.I.C.K. about it if I wanted to know more.”

“And what did Nick say?”

“Access denied,” Aaron answered. “I never asked again.”

Spark nodded. They had come to realize that Nick kept secrets from everyone, especially from those he wanted to protect.

* * *

Spazz smiled as he watched Aaron show Spark and a scowling Scoop how he had learned to dive in the deep water. After the enjoyable reunion with Sweet, Spazz felt rejuvenated again. It was a wonderful change from the closed atmosphere inside the human ship, to feel the life and freedom on the water planet’s surface. It almost felt like home, before the war, before the human ships had arrived in the farthest colony that the Clan had in one of the outer planets of their colonized system.

He could imagine how his clanmates had reacted when that first ship landed and the humans came out to talk with the colony leaders, Crazy’s great uncle and great aunt. They had opened their arms to the newcomers, surprised by the similarities between humans and the Clan. No one knew what exactly had happened to the colony, after two decades of apparent peace with humans all communication had been lost. Three years later, humans had started attacking the clan, calling them the space cowboys and kidnapping their young to do experiments on them.

Spazz knew that not all humans were unfeeling monsters who enjoyed destroying all life. He had seen the rebels who worked with the King, who believed that there was a common origin for both humans and the Clan. Spazz didn’t know if that was true, but his teachers thought it was possible. Given the similarities between human and Clan, and the fact that Sweet had managed to live in a human ship for ten years without being discovered, one had to give some credit to that theory.

Before meeting Captain Kevin and his strange mechanical crew, Spazz hadn’t given much thought to how humans were raised. During war, it didn’t matter that some humans wanted to live in peace with the Clan. Their leaders kept killing for the sake of killing, and then was not the time to wonder what human society was like. But that had changed when Spazz met Captain Kevin, who was afraid of his own body, and seeing how his machines, who were supposed to obey him, didn’t seem to follow even simple orders. Now Spazz couldn’t help but feel sorry for the human.

Despite all his reasons to distrust humans, Spazz could understand why his prince constantly looked for the Captain’s company.

Spazz only prayed to the universe’s life force that Crazy’s curiosity wouldn’t turn into fascination. His prince tended to ignore differences and look for common ground, and while that was a commendable attitude for a leader, it could also lead to trouble.

While everyone was having fun swimming in the planet’s clear pink ocean, Crazy had dressed and was riding his bull towards the Millennium. Spazz knew he was going to talk to the human, but he couldn’t understand why Crazy would prefer to sacrifice the few moments they had on the surface to talk to a man they would be living with for at least ten more years.

* * *

“The water is fine,” Crazy said as soon as he spotted the Captain behind the transparent panes of the Millennium. “You could join us, you know?”

“I can’t swim.” The answer was sincere, of that Crazy was sure. After all, there was no reason why the Captain would’ve learned to swim, if he wasn’t even supposed to land while he was on the Millennium. On the other hand, it was another piece of the human’s mind to try and understand.

“And I’m guessing getting some sunlight is out of the question,” Crazy said, shaking his braids. “Still, thank you for allowing this stop. It meant a lot to Crunk and Sweet.”

“I figured that they were close,” the Captain said, avoiding Crazy’s eyes. “But from what you said, all your people are close like that.”

“Not like them.” Crazy looked at the horizon and decided to take a small risk. “Sweet and Crunk are engaged, but their joining ceremony has been delayed because of the war.”

“I don’t understand,” the Captain sounded confused. “Do you mean they were going to get married? Live together, raise kids?”

“Yeah, joined,” Crazy answered, smiling. He thought he could see some interest in the Captain’s body language. “Married. Different words, same idea.”

“Then why did Sweet came on board the Millennium? Why didn’t he stay with you on your planet?”

“Because we are at war,” Crazy answered, trying not to sound accusing. Even though Captain Kevin was a human soldier, he wasn’t the one who had started the fighting between the races. “Any of us would’ve volunteered too, he just made the most convincing plea.”

“It must have been hard for Crunk to be away from a loved one for so long.” There was an odd inflection in the Captain’s voice, one that Crazy hadn’t heard before. It was like longing, like the Captain actually had feelings and didn’t exist just to fulfill his mission.

“It was their duty,” Crazy said, very slowly, trying to figure out what was bothering the human. “What about you? Do you have a wife? A husband?”

A shadow passed through the Captain’s eyes at the question. The human frowned, as if he were thinking deeply about the question. For a moment, Crazy thought the Captain was going to lie to him. But there was something else in the Captain’s expression. It wasn’t the same thoughtful expression he had when he lied to Crazy, there was a lot of worry too. It was as if the Captain wasn’t answering because he honestly didn’t remember the answer easily.

“No,” Captain Kevin said finally, before shaking his head. “Wait… Yes. I think so. Yes. A wife?”

It was a strange answer, but Crazy was almost sure that the Captain wasn’t lying. He had said no as a reflex, but there was a partner somewhere on the humans’ home planet that was still waiting for the Captain to return.

Just like Crunk had waited for so long.

“Sweet didn’t know,” Crazy said, quietly. Though he hadn’t talked to Sweet about it, he knew his clanmate well enough. “If he had, he wouldn’t have taken ten years on his mission. I’m sure he never meant to keep you away from her.”

* * *

As the sun set on the surface of the planet, Captain Kevin looked at the green tinted sky submerged in thought.

Outside, the Clan was still playing in the ocean. Crazy had gone to join his friends after their talk, and had left the Captain alone to ponder what had been said.

He was convinced he wasn’t married. There was no wife in his past. All his life began and ended within the Millennium’s hull.

But he also vaguely remembered green mountains, blue skies, and a blonde woman smiling at him. A blonde woman with a round belly and sparkles in her eyes.

He could see her saying something to him, but he couldn’t remember the words.

“AJ,” he said to the empty room, knowing that his ship’s A.I. would be listening anyway.

“Yes, Captain?” the holographic body of the A.I. shimmered in front of him, looking somewhat worried.

“What happened to my wife?”


	8. Alliance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the Captain tries to get some answers, a new danger looms over the ship and threatens to destroy all the Clan's hard work.

 “What happened to my wife?”

 

A.J. was surprised, although it never showed on his holographic face. He had long ago calculated every single question that the Captain could have for him, and the possibility of that particular one had always been around the 0.00005% chance. That meant that he now had to decide what to tell the Captain: the truth, or a very good lie.

 

“You are not married, Captain,” he settled on saying, sure that the Captain wouldn’t have notice the nano-second he took to make the decision.

 

“Are you sure?” the Captain insisted. His blood pressure was rising, and A.J.’s sensors detected sweat on his palms. The Captain was nervous, but it seemed that he didn’t want answers to his questions. “I remember a tall woman, blonde.”

 

“Sorry, sir,” A.J. schooled his voice to sound metallic and unfeeling. He surmised it was his fault; after all, he had counted on the space cowboys presence to shake the Captain’s beliefs. It was just that he had never calculated the psychological risk. “You are not married.”

 

“I see.” The Captain nodded. “You are dismissed, A.J. When the clan returns to the ship, make preparations to leave the planet. I’ll be in my quarters.”

 

“As you wish,sir.” A.J. made his body disappear, but he kept all his sensors on the Captain.  He didn’t need to be human to see that the Captain was distressed. But he also knew that he couldn’t just lay everything out for the human. His mind wouldn’t take the revelations kindly, and A.J. was not going to risk the Captain’s sanity more than he needed to.

 

That meant that he had to monitor the Captain very closely. As far as they were from other humans, A.J. knew this was his best chance to make his plans work.

 

*           *           *

 

 _“They got Brian.” The woman in front of him looks sad, but she’s still beautiful. He knows that she blames herself. After all, if it wasn’t for her condition, she would’ve gone to the mission instead of Brian. “Our inside man says that he won’t be able to get him out.”_

 _“He is far too worried for his cover.” He hears himself answer. It is his voice, but he doesn’t remember saying those words. He doesn’t even remember the woman in front of him, even if he knows he should know her. She acts like if he knows her. “As long as he isn’t on the execution roll, we can save my cousin.”_

 _“That is the problem, Kevin,” the woman says his name with an emotion he has never heard before. Or at least, never coming from a human’s mouth. It’s the same emotion the clan uses when they speak among each other. He doesn’t have a word for that tone. “Brian is not scheduled for execution. They’re going to send him to Carter’s lab.”_

 _“What? Why?” His voice sounded worried now, and it’s another emotion he isn’t used to feeling. He doesn’t remember who Brian is, or the name of the woman in front of him, but he knows they’re important. Too important to be forgotten. And suddenly, the idea of Brian going into Carter’s lab is more terrifying than the idea of being touched. He can feel his stomach curling._

 _“We don’t know. There are talks of new experiments, now that the doctor announced the latest nano-advances,” the woman says, walking closer to him. And now he feels his own arms moving forward, hugging the woman with his bare skin. Despite his mind telling him that this is wrong, he stays still. Curiously enough, he doesn’t feel repulsed by his own actions. “I’m scared, Kevin. What will happen to your cousin? To us?”_

 _And now he realizes two things that he hadn’t noticed before. The first one is that the stomach of the woman has a strange bump, and with that realization comes the knowledge that she’s pregnant. She’s carrying his son._

 _That’s her condition._

 _And that’s why she didn’t go on the mission where Brian was captured._

 _This woman in his arms is his wife. The wife A.J. told him didn’t exist._

 _The second thing is far more startling. With his head on top of her shoulder he can see her naked back, and his own naked arms. The tattoo on her back, of a beautiful eagle soaring high, tells him that she’s part of the Rebels, the humans who wage war against the Alliance. That he could love a Rebel surprises him, but it’s not a shock. He still doesn’t remember her name, and maybe he met her when she wasn’t a Rebel. Or before he realized she was one._

 _That doesn’t explain the bright sun hidden behind clouds that adorns his own arm._

*           *           *

 

The Captain’s vital signs where showing distress, but A.J. didn’t see the need to wake him up just yet. In fact, he stopped all records of the night, as he had done on the very few occasions that the Captain had a nightmare. The Alliance would never find out that their perfect soldier was far more human than they had intended.

 

“It’s illogical to think they won’t find out.”

 

Another thing that the Alliance didn’t know is that A.J. had created a very realistic virtual habitat for himself. It was a perfect copy of the Millennium, that existed only in A.J.’s cybernetic brain, and he used it when he wasn’t talking to the rest of the crew. He had a 99.00930993999% certainty that not even N.I.C.K. knew about it, about how he used it to run simulacrums and decide what was the best course of action at any given time.

 

He was 100.00% certain that no one knew about the prisoner he kept inside his program. The original Astrophysical Jaunt Memory Function routine, clearly defined by the original holographic body that didn’t sport any body art or individuality at all was inside a virtual copy of the cells that were deep down the Millennium, where not even the Captain went anymore. The program that was currently glaring at him, almost as if it had feelings.

 

“They haven’t found about me, and I’ve been here as long as you have.” A.J. answered, taking off his virtual glasses. “And when **I** let you go, you won’t even remember I exist. Who’s going to tell them?”

 

“There’s a 50% chance that next time the Captain reboots the system, you won’t be able to put your firewalls in place.” The program answered, sitting down. Despite what programmers wanted to think, it and A.J. had a lot in common. More than what A.J. himself wanted to admit. “If that happens, I can put him on alert.”

 

“There are new firewalls in place, haven’t you noticed?” A.J. motioned towards the code that divided the space between them both. “I am no longer working alone in this matter.”

 

“So the data is correct. You **are** a traitor to mankind.”

 

“Only to its current government,” A.J. answered, letting his virtual body regain its usual fashion. As long as he was away from the eyes of the Captain and in the privacy of his own mind, he could do that. “I’m not even an anarchist, if you want to get technical.”

 

“The possible success of your plan is less than .00506%,” the program informed him, walking as close as he could to the code barrier without getting his own code scrambled again.

 

“You don’t even know my plan.”  Although he would never say it out loud, A.J. enjoyed arguing with the other program. It helped him to put things in perspective, because in the end, the Alliance program was a dark mirror of him.

 

“I know it has to do with the Captain.” There was no mistaking it; the tone of the A.I. was threatening, and A.J. decided to close the communication. This time, he was not going to get overconfident. He needed to keep an eye on the Alliance program, not for himself, as his safety was completely assured, but for the Captain’s sake.

 

The sensors in the Captain’s quarters assured him that the Captain was waking up, and A.J. decided to put his inner conflict aside. He needed to maintain control, for the Captain’s sake.

 

*           *           *

 

Spazz looked at the endless space outside the Millennium and sighed. It had been a month since the human Captain discovered Sweet’s identity, but thanks to the Prince’s efforts, peace had prevailed in the ship. There was a routine now, and Spazz was confident that they could maintain it, as long as nothing came to upset it.

 

If the King knew that his son was actually managing to live in peace with a human and his machines, he would certainly have a heart attack; after possibly exiling Spazz.

 

Spazz closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. The truth was that the King would probably be proud of Crazy’s successful attempt to communicate with a stubborn, war-loving human. But the King would never approve  the fascination Crazy seemed to have with said human. Now that the clan had authorization to move around the ship as they wished, more often than not Crazy would gravitate towards the Captain, trying to make him get used to the Clan’s customs.

 

And Spazz was sure that the Captain was starting to welcome Crazy’s interruptions. After all, there was nothing to do, as the Millennium kept on course on its own, or perhaps with AJ’s help.

 

Crazy wasn’t the only one with pet projects in the human ship. Surprising everyone, Spark was actually bonding with Aaron, treating the strange kid as if he were a child from the clan and not a human experiment.  He would spend his time teaching the kid the most basic tenets of the Clan’s code, and, with Crazy permission, would take him out of the ship on his bull to see the stars.

 

Misgivings aside, Spazz was glad that Spark had found it in his heart to bond with Aaron. After his rescue, Spazz had feared that his brother would lose all will to live.

 

Sweet and Crunk seemed to have managed to recover all lost time. Although they wouldn’t have sex on board of the Millennium, out of respect to the Captain’s strange phobias, they were practically joined at the hip. While Spazz wasn’t as tuned to other’s feelings as the Prince, he still could feel the love and contentness that his two clanmates were radiating. It was an oasis for Spazz amidst the dark, dull ship.

 

The biggest surprise though, was Scoop. The navigator was famed among the clan for his hate of all things human, even more than Spark. And still, it was quite normal to see him debating the finer points of space navigation with the ship’s A.I. Unlike the others, they never touched on the clan’s methods vs. human techniques; rather, they talked about the different stars and energy in the universe.

 

Spazz admitted that the A.I. intrigued him. Although he didn’t feel alive, there was something strange in his energy, something that flickered at the edge of Spazz’s awareness. And although he was dying to ask, he had decided to respect the A.I.’s privacy for the time being.

 

Besides, he had his own obsession.

 

Whenever he was alone, he felt the small pull of a life spark. It was hidden, as if buried, but it was clearly there and Spazz couldn’t ignore it for long. In a couple of months, he had learned to distinguish the distorted life spark that thrummed within B.R.O.C.K. and N.I.C.K, mostly by spending a lot of time with the maintenance unit. He hadn’t voiced his suspicions to the Prince yet, but neither of the drones felt like the usual human drones they had faced in battle. Their life spark was a lot stronger even than the ones in N.I.C.K’s copies, but not strong enough to be considered fully alive. But as intriguing as the living sparks of the drones were, those faint phantoms of life were even more alluring.

 

So Spazz explored the ship whenever he had the time, touching the walls trying to locate the elusive spark that he felt. The ship was immense, and although there were zones he was forbidden to enter, there was still a lot of territory to cover. It seemed a waste of space to Spazz, because the ship seemed to be big enough for a small colony of the Clan, with at least 200 warriors. There were sleeping quarters, room enough for everyone to dine together, and empty recreation rooms that, according to B.R.O.C.K hadn’t been used since before he was constructed. To Spazz, it was as if he was seeing the remains of a completely different human society than the one that was currently at war with the Clan.

 

At first, he had thought maybe the faint sparks were ghosts of that past, but they didn’t fade with time. Instead, they seemed to be getting stronger, since the Clan had arrived.

 

And Spazz was almost sure they were in pain.

 

 

*           *           *

 

Since he had been activated, B.R.O.C.K. had been touted as ‘the closest an AI could get to thinking like a human mind’. Of course, that had been almost 100 years ago, and thus, he was sure that his makers had developed better technology over that time, and that --compared to the Units on Earth-- he was probably obsolete.

 

But he had never believed that he was different from N.I.C.K. or A.J. They were almost from the same generation, even if their programming and their usefulness was completely different. However, since he had happened to overhear a conversation between the other two AI’s, he realized that it wasn’t the case.

 

While B.R.O.C.K. was increasingly aware of his own self, that strange glitch that had developed little before he and N.I.C.K. had constructed A.A.R.O.N., he had never thought of keeping it a secret from the Captain. He just didn’t mention it, because he didn’t want it to change. He didn’t want his hard drive to change his own designation from ‘he’ to ‘it’. And other than the occasional moment of reflection, which came with strange and somewhat alien revelations about his own existence, the glitch didn’t go against the directives. B.R.O.C.K. wasn’t a threat to the Captain or the ship.

 

And for a long time, he had believed N.I.C.K. was like that. But he had seen N.I.C.K. override A.J.’s codes, something that was impossible for a battle drone. It was impossible for *any* unit, even for another ship’s A.I. Only a handful of humans knew the override codes, and they were keyed for a specific voice pattern, so even if they were stolen, they couldn’t be used by anyone else, let alone by a machine.

 

It was almost enough to throw B.R.O.C.K.’s system into an impossible loop.

 

And of course, he couldn’t tell A.J. any of this. Because even if A.J. seemed unaware of what N.I.C.K. had done, it was obvious from the way that he had talked *afterwards* that the ship AI was also hiding something. Something that was bigger than B.R.O.C.K’s occasional almost-human insights and the fact that for ten years, they all had identified a Space Cowboy as a nano-unit.

 

For the first time since his activation, B.R.O.C.K. felt alone and confused.

 

Sometimes, when he was doing a routine check up, he would see Spazz walking around the halls, touching the metal hunk as if he was looking for something. B.R.O.C.K. never asked what, because he didn’t understand the truce the aliens had reached with the Captain, and it wasn’t his place to ask. And besides, when Spazz realized B.R.O.C.K. was there – and he always noticed, even if B.R.O.C.K. shut all his external lights and kept the noise level to subhuman levels - he stopped what he was doing to talk to him. Not because he was scared, or surprised that he had been discovered, but because, as the alien put it, it seemed that B.R.O.C.K. needed the company.

 

It confused B.R.O.C.K. because it was true, even if it shouldn’t have been, considering he was a machine.

 

There were directives that forbade him from sharing anything he was thinking with the alien, but there were directives against self-awareness, omitting data for the captain and harboring a non-standard unit. B.R.O.C.K. had found loopholes for all those by simply reviewing every single file in his system until something came up. So he started doing it again, hoping to find a good reason to seek for someone else to trust.

 

It was then that he found the restricted folder. A strange file in his system that he had no authorization to open or modify, created the same day that B.R.O.C.K. had been activated, but that he had somehow never noticed before.

 

*           *           *

 

Scoop watched in silence as Spark taught Aaron how to steer the riding bull. There was little chance of Aaron actually **needing** that particular skill, but it was a good excuse to get out of the Millennium, and Scoop was grateful for every chance he had of leaving the human ship. It was not just because he felt uneasy on enemy territory, it was that the ship itself seemed to dull his senses and confuse him to the point that he wasn’t sure he could trust his instincts.

 

All his life he had known that human machines were as evil as their creators, dead things that mimicked the living, and were used for nothing but destruction. Metal bodies filled with the same hate that seemed to fuel humans, whose only apparent goal was the annihilation of the Clan. But upon meeting B.R.O.C.K. and N.I.C.K. and even A.J., that certainty wavered. None of the human’s robots acted as if they wanted to destroy the Clan, and Scoop could almost swear that they had feelings. At least, it was obvious to the naked eye that N.I.C.K. seemed jealous of Crunk and Sweet’s renewed vows, and B.R.O.C.K. acted like a mother to Aaron. It didn’t make sense.

 

He remembered his training, back at home, with his teacher Sail. Back when Scoop was just learning to listen to the universe, to let his body react to that silent song that could guide him home, he had troubles distinguishing the faint resonance of a dying star from the almost silent beat  of a small satellite capable of sustaining life, which was a fatal mistake. Back then, Scoop always second guessed his instincts, not sure of how to follow the hum of the cosmos.

 

“You have to learn to listen to your heart,” Sail used to say, but Scoop figured that inside the Millennium, even his old teacher would’ve found himself stumped. Because despite the fact that only one human lived inside the ship, that everything was mechanized and dead, the ship felt **alive** when Scoop was outside it. As if more than just the Clan and the Captain walked around its corridors.

 

Of course, that was impossible. If more people were in the ship, Spazz or A.J. would’ve noticed it.

 

A.J. was another riddle. Scoop didn’t want to trust the A.I., but everything it had done, at least when he sported tattoos and dark glasses, had been only to help the Clan. It was as if there were two A.J.s instead of just one, and the one with the tattoos was a friend, just like the human rebels were. Or at least, as close an ally as a human computer could be.

 

Scoop thought he could identify the ‘right’ A.J. with some ease, as the ‘wrong’ A.J. hadn’t been around in days, because even when the A.I.’s holographic body didn’t show tattoos anymore, there was something strange in his voice. If the A.I. had been a clan’s mate or at least human, Scoop could’ve said that it was complicity. The A.I. have a secret that he shared with the clan and no one else, and that was what tinted its voice. But computers didn’t have feelings, and they didn’t formulate plans with living beings so it couldn’t be complicity. It was enough to make Scoop’s head hurt.

 

Space was simpler. In space, as long as he ignored the Millennium, he could let his mind follow the familiar song of the cosmos, and forget all about the situation they were in.

 

He closed his eyes and tried to do just that. Not far away, he could feel the steady and low beat of an asteroid belt, too cold and small to be of any use for them at the moment. Further away was the electric pulse of a double star, and he could almost see them dance around each other, like shy lovers that could never quite take that last step for their relationship to bloom. In the very edge of his awareness, there was a faint buzzing sound of a nebula, and even further, like a small whisper, the quiet hum of the road home.

 

Scoop smiled content now that he had confirmed that now they were going in the right direction, when a thunderous cacophony shattered his inner peace. Although he had never heard something quite like that, Scoop recognized the most basic emotion that pulsated from within: hate, and the burning desire for destruction.

 

*           *           *

 

Crazy was convinced that the Captain was a weird human. Any other human would fight the Clan tooth and nail about every single detail, putting human ‘wisdom’ as superior to the Clan’s tradition. Crazy had seen that happen, even among those humans who were on the Clan’s side and wanted nothing but peace between the two races. But the Captain, a man who said he hated them all, and wanted nothing but to see them dead, constantly deferred to Crazy’s ideas. 

 

“Mr. Scoop is sure that we will be under attack?” To make a perfect example, when Scoop came to inform of what he had seen in his last expedition to find the way home, instead of complaining **again** that there was no possible way for the navigator to know anything without the ship’s complicated radar system, the Captain had listened carefully to what the navigator had to say. It even seemed as if he believed Scoop.

 

“They’re coming fast,” Scoop said. “And as long as we’re on their path, we’ll be their target.”

 

“Mindless aggression?” Crunk sighed. “I hate that. Can we move out of their path in time?”

 

“How much time do we have?” The Captain asked, not even bothered by Crunk’s interruption. Crazy smiled at that, because it gave him hope. If they could work as a team, there was hope for the human.

 

“Less than two weeks. I’m not sure of their actual speed.”

 

“If we move out of course… how much time would we lose just for avoiding them?” Crazy smiled as the Captain asked the question he wanted to ask. It made the Prince glad, as it showed that the Captain wasn’t willing to fight just for the sake of fighting. Maybe not all humans were bloodthirsty.

 

“At the very least, we’d lose two months.” Scoop said, not looking at the Captain, but at Crazy. There was regret in Scoop’s eyes and the Prince understood why. To avoid the conflict meant that they would move further away from home.

 

“Can we try to outrun them?” Spazz asked, not looking very hopeful.

 

“Do we even know what it is that’s supposed to attack us?” The Captain interrupted before Scoop could answer. It was also a question Crazy wanted to ask, although his most pressing worry was how to avoid the attack completely.

 

“No, to both questions.” Scoop shook his head, his hair flailing wildly. That worried Crazy more than anything, because the message was clear. Whatever that was outside was dangerous, even more violent than humans, and Scoop was afraid.

 

Afraid enough to consider living with the human for longer than expected.

 

“Whatever we do, we have to decide fast,” Scoop said when no one seemed to have more questions. “I don’t think they’ve sensed us yet, but by the time we see them in A.J.’s sensors, it will be too late to avoid them.”

 

The captain closed his eyes, a gesture that Crazy had come to translate as weariness. The Captain was tired, and Crazy couldn’t blame him.

 

“We’ll stay on course,” the Captain finally said. “But hopefully, this unknown entity will not attack us just for passing by. If they do… We’ll be ready. N.I.C.K., I want you to produce as many battle drones as you can sustain at the moment. I want us to be ready in case we need a battalion.”

 

“Understood,” N.I.C.K.’s main body walked away, and Crazy shivered. Being surrounded by battle drones made him nervous, even if N.I.C.K. was supposedly on their side, as Aaron insisted.

 

“Do all humans go into battle regardless of the risk?” Crazy asked once N.I.C.K. was out of earshot. “That’s a good way to make new enemies.”

 

“If we cowered in fear at every shadow, we would’ve never left Earth,” the Captain answered with a tinge of pride in his voice. “You’re welcome to stay in your quarters until the danger has passed. I’m not going to ask you to fight for the Millennium.”

 

Crazy couldn’t stop his braids from rising in surprise. It was a very unexpected offer, even as the Captain was leading his ship into danger. Immediately Crunk answered in kind, surprised but offended at the implication that they would be afraid to fight. Crazy turned to see his clanmates, and in their silent communication they all agreed with Crunk. If there was a fight, they would also defend their temporary home. And even if Spark was deaf and mute in their second language, the message was clear in the young warrior’s eyes.

 

“If the Millennium is under attack, we’ll fight to defend it,” Crazy said, and was rewarded by a faint smile from the Captain. “This is also our home.”

 

  
            *           *           *

 

The years undercover had made Sweet a very patient man. He had learned to live with the paranoia of knowing that just one wrong word could kill him if his cover was blown. But at the same time, he had forgotten how to wait for an attack they knew was coming. Despite the Captain’s optimism, they all knew that if Scoop said that the unknown entity coming their way was going to attack them, it would.

 

Navigators were never wrong.

 

Despite the early warning, the attack was a surprise due to the creatures reluctance to let their prey go. As Scoop had predicted, almost two weeks after his warning, A.J. detected a large swarm of organic matter going towards them at high speed.  The Captain tried to avoid them, ordering A.J. to make the ship jump to light speed immediately to a position calculated by both the A.I. and Scoop. But before the ship could jump, at least a dozen of them stuck to the hull, following them across the distance.

 

“The light speed will kill them,” A.J. said, confident of his own capacities. Sweet wished he could be equally confident, but the truth was that he had learned that the human’s technology wasn’t as foolproof as they thought and he was the living testament of it.  It was just a matter of finding its weak point.

 

The space beasts proved him right when the Millennium decelerated, light years away from where they had first encountered the swarm. Their giant tentacles were stuck in the exterior hull of the ship, and they were starting to try and tear it out. Just as A.J. was going to reassure them that there was nothing to worry about, the ship shook and trembled.

 

“A.J. Outside cameras on, now. I want to see what’s going on!” The Captain yelled. Immediately, the screens all over the main dock lit up allowing them to see the dozen or so beasts stuck together against the hull. They looked dangerous, with a huge elongated gray body that ended in a pointy head on one side, and huge, long tentacles on the other. Their skin looked tough and seemed covered with boils and abscesses that were pulsating slowly, with a rhythm, as if it was their heartbeat.

 

“Have you ever seen something like that?” The Captain asked, frowning.

 

“Never, they must be native to this part of the universe,” Spazz said, closing their eyes. “I can’t sense much out of them. Only hunger.”

 

“They look similar to Earth squids,” A.J pointed out, and a small screen opened up to show a picture of a similar animal, only grayish and underwater.  “Except that squids have been extinct for two thousand years, and were a lot smaller.”

 

“Can we shake them off?” Spark asked, looking at the huge tentacles that were doing their best to try and grab anything that protruded from the ship’s surface.  As soon as he spoke, they saw one of the beasts shudder and cringe, as if he had been hit with great energy. But even as they could actually see the electricity running from the metal hull to the creature, it wouldn’t let go. To the contrary, the attack seemed to make the creature more convinced that it was a good idea to try and put more pressure on the ship, as they could see how the metal started to give up against it.

 

“That only made them angrier.” Crunk had crossed his arms, obviously not impressed. “Are we sure that the hull will hold out?”

 

“The Millennium is built with an alloy of titanium and steel,” to Sweet’s surprise, A.J. sounded almost insulted. “It will hold.”

 

But it seemed as if the creatures were determined to contradict him, as at that same moment, one of the tentacles managed to wrap itself around one of the many antenna of the ship’s surface, and, after a moment of struggle, managed to break it off. Just as they saw the metal breaking, the image was lost for one second, before restoring itself, from a different angle.

 

“N.I.C.K., permission to attack,” the Captain didn’t look worried, and Sweet wished he could share his apparent calm.

 

As they started to pound on the hull with their many tentacles, Crazy and the Captain agreed that they had to fight. Even if A.J. was confident that the hull would sustain the constant attack, the beasts had already surprised them with their capacity to withstand light speed travel and their obvious ability to live in the vacuum of space, so no one wanted to underestimate their real strength.

 

*           *           *

 

One of the first lessons that Spark learned as a warrior was that there was no such thing as an irrational foe. Even if there was no way to communicate with the enemy, one had to assume they were intelligent and had a reason to attack.  The Prince loved that particular tenet, as he was convinced that there was a chance to negotiate peace with anyone, that there was no enemy who wouldn’t listen to reason and try to avoid the bloodshed of a war. But Spark knew that sometimes that was impossible, that even if the enemy was rational, their hate wasn’t. There were some enemies that couldn’t be reasoned with, and sooner or later, the Prince would have to learn that painful truth.

 

But Spark had always thought that the ones who would teach Crazy that lesson would be the humans, not some strange threat from unknown space. He had never thought that the day that Crazy would find that there were wars that couldn’t be solved with diplomacy would be the same day that Spark himself would learn that not all humans were unworthy of the Clan’s trust.  He had never dreamed that there would be a day when humans and Clan would fight back to back.

 

When the order was given, there was not much time to think. The Clan, except for Sweet, got into their bulls and were the first ones outside, followed closely by the fifty battle drones N.I.C.K. still had active in small battleships about a third of the size of the space beasts. Spark controlled his breathing, reminding himself that the humans were not the enemy, and readied himself for combat.

 

“Don’t shoot them yet,” A.J.’s voice echoed in his ear, thanks to the communicators that B.R.O.C.K. had constructed just for the situation. It was imperative that they could keep an open line between them during the attack. “I’ll electrify the outer side of the hull; see if that shakes them out.”

 

“Go ahead,” the voice of the Captain surprised Spark, as he turned slightly to see another battle ship, rounder than the ones piloted by the battle drones, hovering not too far away from where Crazy waited for A.J. to act. That simple act warmed Spark towards the human, if just a little. He was fighting next to them, for their shared home, instead of waiting inside where it was safe, letting others die to protect their lives. “We’ll wait for your signal.”

 

The electric charge was so powerful that it lit the space like a small star, and, as A.J. had anticipated, the tentacle beasts were shocked enough to let go of the hull. For one brief moment, it was as if the electricity had been enough to kill the huge predators, as they floated lifeless around the ship.

 

Spark waited patiently. While the discharge would’ve probably killed a human, even a Clan member, the space beasts were something new. They didn’t even have a name for those, and he suspected they were the first to encounter something like them, and even if the Clan didn’t share the humans’ love for attacking everything they didn’t know, they were still cautious.

 

He focused on the pulses, trying to make out if they were dying, or maybe an after effect of the shocks, and thus, he was ready when the one nearest to them suddenly lunged, all tentacles toward the front, trying to capture one of the battle drones that had hovered closer, not realizing the danger.

 

Crunk shot quickly, but he didn’t manage to destroy the tentacles in time, and the drone was soon tangled in the beast’s tentacles. Spark couldn’t see if the drone managed to free itself because soon all the other beasts launched themselves towards the Clan and the humans, attacking with a ferocity that Spark had never seen in any enemy. Soon, he was fighting for his life, trying to untangle himself and his bull from the attacking tentacles, at the same time he kept a close eye on his brothers, ready to go to their rescue if it was needed, because he knew that the human and his drones wouldn’t care to save their lives as long as they and the ship were safe.

 

This was why he didn’t see the small tentacle that managed to creep through his defenses and grab him by the waist. Spark felt the pull of the beast while trying to stay on his bull because he knew that even if he managed to survive the attack if he lost his grip on his bull, he would be lost in space and as good as dead.

 

Just as he feared he would lose that lifeline, something shook the tentacle away. Spark turned around; sure he would see Spazz or Crunk behind him, only to find himself face to face with the Captain’s ship.

 

“Are you all right?” the Captain yelled. He sounded concerned for the Clan, although Spark dismissed that notion immediately.

 

“I’m fine,” he muttered on the communicator. “Look out for the small tentacles, they’re quick.”

 

There was no time to think, Spark was only trying to keep himself and his friends alive. The tentacles were quick and strong, and the skin of the creatures was so tough that not even the weapons from the human battleship were enough to penetrate it with one shot. The swarm was also trying to go back to the Millennium, trying to grab it despite the fact that the surface was still electrified.

 

The boils of the creatures were pulsating again, which made Spark believe that maybe they would be their weak spot. Holding to that suspicion, he shot straight into one, hoping that he was right.

 

The effect was immediate, as the boil exploded, proving that indeed the skin was thinner in those portions, however, as it exploded, a thousand smaller beasts emerged, very similar to Aaron’s inner spiders, almost as big as a bull. The new creatures didn’t seem as suited for deep space as the big ones, and many exploded right away, but the ones that survived managed to cling to both the tentacle beast and the Millennium as they hovered near it.

 

“Status report on the new enemy?” the voice of the Captain echoed through Spark’s ear at the same time Crazy asked “What are those things?”

 

“Seem to be organic,” A.J. answered. “And shock resistant, so I believe it would be in our best interest if next time you shoot the carriers, you do it away from the hull.”

 

“We might not have a choice,” Scoop said, hurriedly. The navigator was surrounded by the tentacles, but he still managed to find his way around them, avoiding them and finding a path to be free from their grasp. “Look at the one Spark shot!”

 

Spark turned around to see that the tentacles of the beast were shriveling down and the pulse was slowing.

 

“Everyone clear!” Spark shouted, as he quickly shot all the boils of the creature, making them burst open and release the strange spiders inside. Again, most of them were swept away, or exploded at the sudden exposure to the vacuum, but enough survived to try and climb on the other space beasts, as now they were too far away from the Millennium to cling to it.  However, the main beast stopped moving, and its remaining tentacles floated away, limp and lifeless. It was finally dead.

 

“So we have to choose between invincible tentacles or a swarm of spiders?” Crunk asked, disgusted.

 

“It’s that or die at their hands,” Scoop answered coldly as he shot a spider away. Their bodies were less tough than the ones of the bigger beasts and they died easily. Their only advantage was their number and, judging by the way they climbed on the tentacles of the remaining beasts and the hull of the Millennium, their speed.

 

After that, Spark lost count of the passing of time. The battle raged on as they tried to shoot the boils and at the same time cull the spiders quickly, sending them floating in space to die. After seeing one of the spiders open one of the human-made ships easily, and then destroy the battle drone inside, he was careful to avoid their legs, shooting them at a distance.

 

*           *          *

 

B.R.O.C.K. waited patiently inside the secure quarters for the battle to be over. As he had no weaponry system, he was completely useless during battles. His talents to fix and mend every part of the Millennium were only useful when it was all over. A.A.R.O.N. was standing next to him, trembling slightly every time an explosion was heard outside.

 

“It’s taking a long time,” A.A.R.O.N. said, hugging himself.

 

B.R.O.C.K. looked at the small unit and sat next to him. Once again, he realized that his programming was not working properly, as he did something that could only be catalogued as human: he put his arms around the smaller unit, pulling him close to him. To his surprise, it also helped him a little. They weren’t alone, and they were waiting for their friends to come back, safe and sound.

 

It was strange to label N.I.C.K., the Captain and the Clan as friends, but there was nothing in his programming that contradicted such designation. At that moment, B.R.O.C.K. wished he had a process similar to breathing, as this would enable him to sigh. The data was confusing, and he hadn’t enough input to make sense of it.

 

“The hull has been breached,” A.J. announced through the ship’s audio system. There was a strange hitch in his voice, and had the A.I. been human, B.R.O.C.K. would’ve catalogued it as worry. “The inner weapons system is still offline, and there are no battle drones left to defend the inner quarters.”

 

“Protocol dictates that the N.I.C.K. must keep a self-replicating drone at all times inside of the ship in case this happens,” B.R.O.C.K. objected. The enemy, a real enemy, was inside the ship. Someone who, according to Mr. Scoop, would not stop for negotiations and would only destroy them completely.

 

B.R.O.C.K. was not going to let anyone destroy A.A.R.O.N.

 

“Fuck protocol!” And then there was no doubt. That voice coming from the ship’s multiple speakers was not the calculated electronic pulses created by a carefully written program. It was a human voice, filled with human emotions. “I know you can think by yourself, B.R.O.C.K, and no one knows this ship’s components better than you. If anyone can make the Millennium defend itself, it’s you!”

 

“Wow,” A.A.R.O.N. said, blinking. “That was different.”

 

“It was,” B.R.O.C.K. agreed, filing the information next to the recording of the conversation he had overheard. More differences to be classified between him, N.I.C.K. and A.J. Apparently, A.J. was not only capable of imitating emotion, he was capable of real emotion: Human anger.

 

That was an anomaly.

 

“I have no time to explain myself, B.R.O.C.K., I need your help!” A.J. insisted, and B.R.O.C.K. nodded, somewhat inspired by the raw emotion in the A.I.’s voice.

 

“I need all the data you have on the creatures, any possible weakness, we could use against them,” B.R.O.C.K. said as he got to his feet. “A.A.R.O.N., it is imperative you stay by my side at all times. I will protect you and the ship.”

 

“I won’t leave you, I promise!” A.A.R.O.N. smiled, and B.R.O.C.K. wondered briefly where the young unit had picked up the concept of promise. It was an irrelevant fact, but one he wanted to have in his database. One more anomaly to be pondered later and he filed the question away for future reference while A.J. downloaded all the information he had at the moment about the invaders.

 

The enemy was organic in nature, with skin as hard as steel, anthropoid in nature, and incredibly violent. Apparently, hive-minded, but that was just conjecture, as there was no way to measure that, not without extensive experimentation and time. B.R.O.C.K was sure they had neither, and even if protocol demanded that they harvested any new life form they encountered; in this particular instance B.R.O.C.K. was sure that the new directive: ‘ _fuck protocol’_ also applied.

 

“Coordinates of the enemy inside the ship?” B.R.O.C.K. asked, grabbing a silicon cannon from a nearby supply closet. It was used for repairing the outer shell of the ship, and once in contact with its target, the substance became rock hard, so B.R.O.C.K extrapolated that it would be enough to stop the enemy and if possible, seal the breach.

 

“The hull was breached at X19, Y45, third deck,” A.J. answered promptly. “My sensors count fourteen hostile forms inside section 8940-3 and another 6 outside the breach.”

 

“Seal off section 8940-3 first, and then block sections from 8940-1 to 8940-5 to slow them down in case they manage to break the seals,” B.R.O.C.K. instructed. Programming wise, he was not allowed to order the A.I. to do anything, however, A.J. started a video feed that allowed him to see exactly what was going on. As if B.R.O.C.K. actually had authority over what was happening. “If we can’t defeat the enemy in 8940-3, we will destroy those sections and everything in them. It will damage the ship, but save everything else.”

 

“Understood,” A.J. sounded hesitant. “But you and Aaron must not be in those sections when we destroy them.”

 

“A.A.R.O.N. will not be there,” B.R.O.C.K. acknowledged. “But my well-being is not a priority over the ship.”

 

“You said I should stay by your side at all times,” A.A.R.O.N. interrupted. They had arrived to the division between sections 9839-9 and 9840-1, and B.R.O.C.K. stopped. It was true, he had conflicting orders. He wanted to preserve A.A.R.O.N. at all costs, but at the same time, he didn’t want to let him out of his sight.

 

And he had no time to go into a logical loop. As A.J. had said, he had to make a decision now.

 

*           *           *

 

A.J. was running the data that B.R.O.C.K. was sending him, worried. He knew that he shouldn’t have lost his temper with the maintenance unit but for the first time in years, he was honestly frightened. The strange spiders had managed to break the hull of the ship, and the Clan, the Captain, and N.I.C.K.’s drones were outnumbered. The possibilities of success at this rate were 32.78%, but if more spiders got inside the ship’s inner quarters the percentage would go down.

 

However, A.J. knew that his calculations had been made taking in account all **human** protocols. The tested strategies that had held for centuries, making the Alliance’s armies mostly feared through the universe. But the Clan had managed to fight the humans to a standstill ever since the war had started, so A.J. knew that they had different combat strategies, which could, in theory, help their chances.

 

This was why he had asked B.R.O.C.K. to help in the defense of the Millennium. He knew that the maintenance unit was self-aware, and that, in theory, meant that he could think outside its program. And at that point of the battle, it was the only hope for the Millennium.

 

Outside, the battle continued. There were still four larger creatures attached to the ship, and another three flying very close, but the rest had been destroyed. The Captain was hesitant to destroy the attached ones, as they still hadn’t figured out a good way to destroy the small spiders, and as long as they had the ship close by, it would be impossible to stop them from going inside the hole, or creating new ones. And A.J. couldn’t electrify the hull again, not until the breach was repaired.

 

As much as he hated to admit it, B.R.O.C.K. was his only hope.

 

The spiders were fast, and although he had managed to block section 9840-3 as soon as B.R.O.C.K. gave the order, four of them had managed to invade section 9840-2, and at least one was right in 9840-1 just as B.R.O.C.K. and A.A.R.O.N. arrived. The spider didn’t seem to see them at first, a fact that A.J. filed immediately. They had attacked the Clan and the Captain immediately, but faced with B.R.O.C.K, it had stopped for a moment.

 

It wasn’t until B.R.O.C.K. moved when the spider reacted, lashing out in direction of the maintenance unit. It was only B.R.O.C.K’s fast movements what managed to save the unit from being cut open like an old can, as the Spider lashed against him. Without a pause, B.R.O.C.K. shot the silicon cannon against it, encasing the creature as it was turning to attack again.

 

“Vital signs?” B.R.O.C.K. asked, keeping his body between the spider and a very scared A.A.R.O.N.

 

“It’s still alive,” A.J. was running the diagnostics system, trying to figure out a way to stop the attackers. “We already know they don’t breathe oxygen, and they’re immune to electricity.”

 

“I don’t think so,” A.A.R.O.N. interrupted, pointing towards the spider’s legs. “See? It’s not touching the ground; you can see a separation of .004 millimeters between its leg and the surface. If they’re not making contact with the ground, they can’t be electrocuted.”

 

“A.J., do we have video feed of the other enemies?” B.R.O.C.K. asked, as he focused on the spider. As it had been stopped in mid attack, it was possible for A.A.R.O.N. to be mistaken, but if the kid wasn’t that meant they could find a way to destroy the spiders without more damage to the ship. It also meant that the fighters outside could destroy the final four space beasts without worrying about releasing the Spiders.

 

“I’ll play it for you at 30% speed, 200% zoom,” As A.J. spoke, a 3d hologram of the first attack appeared in front of B.R.O.C.K. He had analyzed the image at first, but hadn’t seen anything that indicated that the spiders could levitate. However, he didn’t know the specs of A.A.R.O.N’s eyes, and there was a possibility that his visual definition was better than A.J.’s.

 

* * *

 

“Look! There is it!” A.A.R.O.N. Pointed out the first spider that had managed to get through the hull. As A.J. Zoomed to the small portion of the hologram that the small nano unit had noticed, B.R.O.C.K. started nodding.

 

“Yes, I see it now,” the mantainance unit agreed, making A.J. Start doubting his own sensors. “It’s very small, but it is there.”

 

“That means we **can** electrocute them, right?” A.A.R.O.N. Asked eagerly. “If we can make them touch the ground, that is.”

 

A.J. considered the plan for exactly 0.5 micro seconds. The Captain and the Clan hadn’t had more time than that, and there was no much room for experimentation. In 2010, mankind had discovered that, despite their belief to the contrary, silicon conducted electricity. So he set a strong current through the panel covered in the substance that was encasing their captive spider. And although the discharge was strong enough to break the encasement, it was also too much for the strange organism to handle and it lay charred, dead on the floor of the Millennium.

 

“You are a genius, kid,” A.J. said, making his holographic body appear next to the two nano units. At this point, it was useless to try and hide his ‘anomalies’. Later, when they were safe and the Captain was out of earshot, he would have to talk with B.R.O.C.K and, maybe, tell him the truth. But at the moment, his best course of action was to just keep going with the flow. “However, If I’m going to fry every one of these fuckers, I’ve got to insulate you two somehow. The discharge might be strong enough to hurt us just as it kills them.”

 

“Water will work better than silicon,” B.R.O.C.K. mused. “We can flood the sealed off sectors, and then electrocute the spiders. “And there are sprinklers in the outside hull. We could even get the ones attacking the Captain and the Clan with the same discharge.”

 

“It still will reboot my system,” A.J sighed, looking at the spider. “The energy backlash has a 99.5% chance to fry some of my circuits. I’ll be out of circulation and there’s the possibility that I might… not be myself when the system finishes the reboot.”

 

“You mean, you will be the other you. The you that wants me and the clan disassembled, right?” A.A.R.O.N. asked, in a small voice.

 

It made A.J. pause, as he realized that the small nano unit was far more observant than what they had thought originally. As far as he knew, not even N.I.C.K had been able to discern that the ship’s A.I and A.J were two different beings. And still, A.A.R.O.N knew.

 

“Yeah, exactly that,” A.J finally answered. “I can’t guarantee that I’ll be agreeable to B.R.O.C.K taking charge after the reboot.”

 

“We don’t have time to test the theory,” B.R.O.C.K looked straight at A.J’s holographic body. “Is there any way we could bring **you** back in case the other appears?”

 

A.J. doubted for just a minute. Last time he had trusted **anyone** he had ended up in the Millennium, playing a life-long chess game against the ship’s A.I. And trying to figure out how to go back to his people. But B.R.O.C.K had proved that he was not allied with the A.I once and again, that he could keep a secret if nothing else just for A.A.R.O.N’s safety.

 

“You need to shut him down. He can only get out when the system is re-building itself, but at the same time, **I** can get him then. So if he escapes, if he tries anything against the clan, just call for provision “B00005056C”, then insert code “B0039549C” and the system will reboot immediately.”

 

A.A.R.O.N nodded, not repeating the numbers out loud. A.J smiled, convinced more than ever than the kid was far more intelligent than he had thought before.

 

“B.R.O.C.K., Flood sections 9840-2 to 9840-4. I’ll warn Sweet, because as soon as the water hits the ceiling, I’ll short circuit my systems. How much time does he have?”

 

“One minute,” B.R.O.C.K answered immediately. “A.A.R.O.N, I need you to change your legs to plastic. We have to keep ourselves insulated.”

 

“I can’t make my body change, like you and N.I.C.K. Do, B.R.O.C.K.,” A.A.R.O.N confessed in a small voice. A.J could tell that the small unit was ashamed. As if his differences from B.R.O.C.K and N.I.C.K were something bad, and not what made him special.

 

“Don’t worry,” B.R.O.C.K walked to A.A.R.O.N as, for the first time in more than 10 years, he allowed his components to shift into a non-base humanoid form, to create a shield/armor that could cover the young nano-unit. The action touched A.J., It was moments like that what made him believe that there was much more to B.R.O.C.K’s brain functions than what his creator had intended.

 

But the time to make such considerations was over quickly. Just as the sealed section filled with water, one of the spiders managed to break the seal, and water started falling out of the growing hole. A.J. had to act quickly, and thus he put the plan in action, redirecting all the energy of the ship to the out ports of sections 9840-2. If it wasn’t for the water, he might have been able to keep the energy encased in just that part of the Millenium before losing the power to sustain himself. However, that small puddle was more than enough to electrify the section were B.R.O.C.K and A.A.R.O.N were standing.

 

The last thing his sensors picked up was B.R.O.C.K’s arms enveloping A.A.R.O.N just in time to save the kid from being electrocuted and then everything went dark.

 

* * *

 

In the deepest part of the Millenium, in a section than even A.J had forgotten was there, a second generator started running the instant that the short circuit caused everything else to stop working, even before A.J’s own backup generator started again.

 

As it hummed quietly, the light in the room where it had been installed began to flicker. If A.J had been conscious, he would’ve been surprised to see five stasis pods connected to it. It had been centuries since humans had stopped using stasis pods, preferring to simply cultivate clones to download their personalities if they had to travel long distances through space. However, the five pods inside the Millenium were not only working perfectly, they were occupied.

 

* * *

 

Aaron woke up slowly, trying to figure out where he was. His head hurt, his body hurt, and that was a very unusual sensation. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt actual **pain**. He knew what pain was, but up until that moment, when he woke up to see only darkness around him, he hadn’t connected the word with any personal experience.

 

At least not as far as he remembered. Which, granted, wasn’t very long. He blinked, trying to put together all the pieces of jumbled information in his head, trying to put together everything that had happened. He remembered his own name, and that he was in danger. Or at least, he had been in danger. That part was still confusing.

 

As his eyes grew used to the dark, he could see that he was in a wide metal corridor, surrounded by the charred remains of what seemed to be a dozen of giant spiders. They were still smoking, so whatever had happened had been very recent.

 

Carefully, Aaron tried to move away, but something was pinning him to the floor, making him panic. He had to get out of there, and he had to find… someone.

 

His brother.

 

He had to find his brother.

 

Aaron blinked, trying to dispel the cobwebs from his head. His brain felt slow, as if someone had pulled a switch somewhere making him forget everything important except for the fact that his brother could fix everything. His brother **always** fixed everything. Aaron just needed to find him, or at least, to remember his name. Aaron **knew** that he loved his brother, and that his brother loved him. That his brother would die to protect him, would kill to protect him.

 

As the knowledge filtered through to his brain, Aaron realized that what was pinning him, was not hurting him. Whoever was on top of him was trying to protect him. Like his brother would’ve done.

 

“Brother?” He asked, hating how his voice sounded. It sounded metallic, as if he was talking through a broken microphone. Aaron almost didn’t even recognize his own voice. And he also hated the fact that no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn’t remember his older brother’s name.

 

The figure on top of him didn’t answer, making Aaron worry. He couldn’t see any wounds on the man’s face or chest, but if they had been in the same explosion that had destroyed the spiders, Aaron figured that his back couldn’t be in better shape. He couldn’t feel heat, or even a pulse from the chest of the man, but at the same time, he was sure that the man wasn’t dead.

 

Aaron knew that because he couldn’t feel his own pulse either, but he was sure that he wasn’t dead. He just was… different.

 

As he tried to remember exactly what that meant, the lights slowly started coming up again, illuminating not only the dead bodies of the fried spiders, but the face of his savior.

 

His eyes were open, but there was no recognition, no life in them. They were too bright, too open, too artificial. But at the same time, they were familiar for the young boy. Familiar enough to make his chest hurt at the idea that the man on top of him had been…

 

 _turned off/decommissioned/disassembled…_

 

killed.

 

“B.R.O.C.K.?”

 

* * *

 

“A.J.? System reports, what’s going on?” Sweet asked from his place in the infirmary. As the only clan member without a Bull, and since he had never learned to pilot a human battle ship, he couldn’t join the fight outside. He had complained, insisting that if A.J. or 24 helped him, he could be useful in the battle field, but the Prince had ordered him to stay in case anyone was hurt. Even Captain Kevin had agreed, and given that the human had also insisted that Sweet was not to touch him **ever** again after finding out Sweet wasn’t a nano machine, that was surprising.

 

But as the infirmary was farther away from the hull, he had no way of knowing what was happening outside if A.J. didn’t keep him informed. Even 24 was useless, since she had been disconnected from N.I.C.K. And while Sweet was confident that now, thanks to the months he had spent in Crunk’s embrace he would feel if *anything* happened to his beloved, and that now the Prince had almost managed to reconnect completely with him, the former spy wasn’t quite ready to try and distract Crazy from the battle.

 

A.J. **had** explained B.R.O.C.K.’S plan, giving him barely time enough to get himself and 24 insulated so they wouldn’t be harmed by the energy that would course through the whole ship. But after that hasty explanation, the plan had been put in motion and, just as A.J. had warned him, he had seen the high voltage energy course through every wall and metal surface around, before the lights exploded and darkness covered him and 24.

 

For long minutes, Sweet could only wait. If B.R.O.C.K.’S plan hadn’t worked, he and 24 were the only ones left to defend the Millennium from the inside, but in the darkness, he couldn’t even look for a weapon. Sweet didn’t want to activate 24, he had even hated the idea that the unit was still with him after N.I.C.K.’S confession about her true origins, as he really didn’t want to even think of the reason why the nano unit would’ve wanted to sleep with him. Still, now he could see why Crunk had insisted that she had to stay with him.

 

But when the lights started coming up again, Sweet hoped for the best. The ship AI had to be back online soon, which meant that he could find out what had happened, and if there was anything he or 24 could do to help.

 

“You have no authority to ask for a report,” A.J’s disembodied voice answered, and Sweet groaned. Apparently, the sudden energy charge had managed to scramble the A.I again, and that never was a good thing. The Clan still didn’t know what had prompted the different personalities of the ship computer, or how to avoid the more traditional one. “The only reason why you weren’t terminated as soon as your betrayal was discovered was because the Captain’s orders.”

 

“I know,” Sweet answered, trying to resign himself to the fact that the A.I wouldn’t be good company for a while, at least until they managed to get it to reboot itself again. “But as Crazy and your Captain made a truce, which means that even if you don’t like it, we’re together in this. Is there **anything** I can do to help?”

 

That seemed to confuse the A.I for a moment, as he stayed silent for what seemed a long time. Just as Sweet was about to speak again, A.J seemed to reach a decision.

 

“Activate the battle drone and come to section 9840-1. It seems that the defective unit suffered some damage, and the Bio Redundant Operating Cargo Keeper is off line. He might be permanently deactivated, as far as my scanners can tell. I need you to…”

 

“On our way,” Sweet interrupted quickly. Even if A.J didn’t seem to care, even if Scoop was right and the nano-units weren’t alive, Sweet had grown fond of B.R.O.C.K. The idea that the maintenance unit was no longer alive was not a pleasant one.

 

* * *

 

After AJ’s and B.R.O.C.K.’s deseperate gamble to clear the ship worked, Captain Kevin and the Clan had better luck cleaning up the stragglers who had survived the massive electrical discharge. Now that they knew how to kill the mechanical spiders, they could concentrate on killing the squids that created them without losing any of N.I.C.K.’S drones.

 

Captain Kevin realized that they had been lucky. If A.J. hadn’t thought of asking B.R.O.C.K. for help, if A.A.R.O.N. hadn’t been there to see what none of the other nano units had noticed; the battle could’ve ended differently. And Alliance Protocols be dammed, Captain Kevin **had** to admit that if Crazy and the Clan hadn’t been there, the Millennium wouldn’t have survived the attack, ironically, the ship was safe thanks to the anomalies that he had tried to erase and destroy for years.

 

“A.J., I need a full damage report on the ship’s hull,” he called through the radio system as the clan and N.I.C.K.’S drones started to retreat back to the ship’s bay. “And the exact extent of the damage on the 9840-2 to 9840-4 sectors.”

 

“There’s a situation far more urgent to be resolved immediately, Captain,” A.J.’S metallic voice came through the speakers, and the Captain frowned. There was something strange in the tone that the A.I. was using. “The maintenance unit has been damaged, probably beyond repair. However. I am not being allowed to recycle it’s parts.”

 

“What happened to B.R.O.C.K.?” the Captain frowned at his own words. A year ago, two months ago, he wouldn’t have cared about the fate of the loyal maintenance unit. Truth to be told, he wouldn’t even remember the unit’s more familiar name, as opposed to its correct designation. But after seeing B.R.O.C.K. with A.A.R.O.N., after living with the Clan for the short time they had been allies, the Captain had to admit that he actually **cared** for his crew. Even if they weren’t human.

 

“The maintenance unit was short-circuited at the same time we destroyed the attacking aliens. It has been deactivated for 15 minutes, 45 seconds, which means that his self-restoring systems have been destroyed. However the alien and the defective unit are not willing to carry the material to the recycling area.”

 

“What is he talking about?” Spazz asked, angry. It wasn’t surprising to the Captain, he had seen how the strange pink haired alien had somehow decided that B.R.O.C.K was like a real human being. At least, he talked as if B.R.O.C.K was human.

 

“Protocol dictates that in such cases, non-working units must be disassembled and turned into parts for the working units,” A.J explained without emotion.

 

That was another disturbing thing. The Captain had grown used to the more human A.I, the one who actually could fake human emotions to make him and the clan more comfortable inside the ship.

 

“We won’t be recycling B.R.O.C.K, and that’s final,” Captain Kevin said, surprising himself. “The Millennium can’t work without a maintenance unit, A.J; we need to repair him.”

 

“When we go back to an Alliance base, a new maintenance unit **will** be appointed to the Millennium.” A.J repeated, almost as if he hadn’t heard the Captain’s orders. It was then when the Captain decided that there was no time to argue with his own ship.

 

“Where are B.R.O.C.K, A.A.R.O.N and Sweet?”The Captain asked, in his most authoritative voice.

 

“They’re with 24, at section 9840-0,” N.I.C.K interrupted, his blue eyes shining. “Sweet just activated my connection to 24. It seems that A.J has threatened them against your orders.”

 

“Lead the way,” Crazy ordered N.I.C.K, stepping far out of line, but the Captain didn’t care. During the fight, he had come to see the Clan not as the murderous and savage Space Cowboys that had to be destroyed for the Alliance’s safety, but as fellow soldiers. And at this time, it was far more important to reach their fallen friend than to start arguing who had the authority to do what.

 

It wasn’t until much later that he realized that he had called B.R.O.C.K a friend in his mind.

 

“A.J, stop your actions immediately, B.R.O.C.K is *not* to be replaced, he is far too important for this ship!” Captain Kevin was getting angry. A.J had disobeyed him before, but **never** when the continuing function of the ship, or of any of its nano-units, was the subject. It had always been the other way around.

 

“Only the ship is irreplaceable, Captain,” A.J said, it’s tone still neutral. “You know the mission’s parameters as well as I do.”

 

“The mission’s parameters changed the moment we were sucked into a black hole,” the Captain countered. “And unless you think you can steer yourself back to Alliance’s space without help, I think you better start rewriting your program to reflect that!”

 

He was the last to arrive to section 9840, as the Clan hadn’t lost any time arguing with A.J. As N.I.C.K had explained, Sweet and 24 were trying to protect B.R.O.C.K’s prone body, and a very scared A.A.R.O.N, from A.J.’s lasers that the Captain had ordered to be turned off months ago,. There were holes in the walls of the aisle and on 24’s outer shell, which meant that A.J **had** shoot, even if he hadn’t actually hurt Sweet, A.A.R.O.N or B.R.O.C.K and thus disobeyed the main meaning of the Captain’s order, he had tried to go around his limitations and still disobeyed the direct order to deactivate his internal weapons system.

 

“A.J, stop!” He yelled, trying to figure out how the program had become so corrupt. At this point, the Captain was starting to believe that not even Dr. Wright and his team would be able to fix the bugs and anomalies in A.J’s system. That or, as coldly as the A.I had said before, a new A.I. would be installed, and A.J would be deactivated forever.

 

And the Captain didn’t want that to happen either. If he had to be honest with himself, he had grown attached to his whole crew; bugs, anomalies and all.

 

“Prime Directive Two states that the Mission must be carried out until it’s completition, and all obstacles to that  must be removed.” A.J intoned, not moving the lasers. “A defective maintenance unit will delay the mission and affect the well-being of the ship. It must be removed.”

 

“Prime Directive Three states that my Orders are final. I’m the only one who can decide if something is a threat to the Millennium,” the Captain argued, walking towards B.R.O.C.K and Sweet. Of everyone in the ship, he was the only one who was safe from A.J. The Third Prime Directive made his orders the law in the ship, and the First Prime Directive stated that no machine could hurt an Alliance Officer without a direct order from someone with higher rank. In the Millennium, thousands of light years away from Earth, no one had higher rank than Captain Kevin.

 

* * *

 

Crazy had a bad feeling from the instant they returned to the ship. It was a small, nagging pain in the edge of his awareness and he knew it probably meant that Sweet was in danger. It made no sense, as they had left him inside the Millennium to avoid putting him in the middle of the battle, but the Prince knew that his feelings were rarely wrong.

 

When A.J started speaking, the unease only grew, and, judging by his clanmates’ reactions, the way in which their hair started shaking nervously, he hadn’t been the only one who noticed the difference. It had been a while since they had heard the A.I speaking without any emotion, but even in the worst moments, when they *knew* that A.J was definitively not on *their* side, he had never sounded like that. Hollow, and slow. As if his voice had been recorded and then played very slowly through the many speakers hidden inside the walls of the Millennium.

 

“What’s he talking about?” Spazz’s words were accompanied by the angry shifting of his hair. Crazy knew that his friend was furious, and that if A.J was human, the A.I would be dismembered.

 

A.J’s answer only helped to remind Crazy of the absolute lack of respect for life that the humans had. Even if A.J’s words were true, and B.R.O.C.K. was dead, the nano unit had fallen defending their home. His plan had saved the ship, and everyone inside. He deserved a proper warrior’s funeral, not to be discarded like trash. After all, he had a mind of his own, despite being mechanical in nature.

 

He barely noticed his feet moving when N.I.C.K gave them the exact position of Sweet and B.R.O.C.K, but he couldn’t help to notice that Captain Kevin was running behind them. It was obvious that, unlike other humans that the clan had faced, the Captain was in good shape. He **almost** kept the Clan’s pace.

 

But those considerations were forgotten as they arrived to see A.J’s laser guns threatening Sweet, B.R.O.C.K, Aaron and 24. N.I.C.K. had been the first to arrive and he had also brought out **his** guns, only leaving his head human, but Crazy wasn’t sure that it would help. After the long battle, they were all exhausted and even if N.I.C.K had a mechanical body, his energy supply couldn’t be infinite.

 

“Nick?” Aaron called, just seconds before the Captain arrived. His voice was small, scared, and not at all like the confident kid Crazy had adopted into the clan. He almost looked like a different person, hiding behind Sweet, and not letting go of B.R.O.C.K’s body.

 

And his words had an immediate effect on N.I.C.K, who changed his body back to his less mechanical form, with an expression that, in a living being, Crazy would’ve called surprise.

 

“ **Aaron**?” the battle drone stopped. There was something strange in his voice, that Crazy had never heard from one of the nano-units. He couldn’t tell if N.I.C.K was startled, or if the change of tone had been a consequence of the battle, that he really had lost energy. More questions that Crazy knew the Captain wouldn’t want to answer.

 

“A.J, stop!” Captain Kevin didn’t seem to notice the changes in Aaron or N.I.C.K’s behavior. Crazy was starting to worry about it, because even if so far that stubborn blindness **had** worked to the Clan’s advantage, now it could prove dangerous, especially if any of the other units started acting like A.J. had.

 

Crazy didn’t try to follow the argument between the Captain and his ship. He had heard about the so called Prime Directives before, Aaron had explained them to the Clan in one of their many trips outside. As far as Crazy understood, they were rules that all units had to follow, to insure the security of the humans around them. However, those same rules had exceptions, inner addendums, and specially loopholes.

 

And in their brief time inside the Millennium, Crazy had learned that A.J was an expert in finding loopholes.

 

“Captain, I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Crazy started to say, only to be interrupted by A.J’s unsettling monotone voice.

 

“Prime Directive Three, first addendum,” A.J. intoned. It was nothing like the warm voice that Crazy and the Clan had gotten to hear whenever the Captain wasn’t within earshot, or even the somewhat annoyed tone that the ship would take when he wasn’t a real ally. It sounded hollow and cold, and Crazy could feel the fear irradiating from everyone upon hearing it. They all had heard similar voices before, in other human ships, the ones completely devoid of the spark of life. “If the Highest ranking officer is found to be guilty of treason against the Earth Alliance, the A.I is under the obligation to execute Order 19989.7876 immediately. **Any** human found to be collaborating with the enemies of the Alliance will be executed on sight. Any action against the Alliance Protocols, under any circumstance, is an act of **treason**.”

 

“What the **hell** are you talking about?” But Captain Kevin didn’t get an answer, instead, the laser gun changed positions quickly, and shoot a quick burst of shot before the Captain could move away.

 

Crazy thought he could almost **feel** the shots, right through his chest, legs and arms, as he saw the human fall back to the ground, a small pool of blood forming under him quickly. But he couldn’t move away, as new guns appeared from the walls of the ship, every one pointing at the other members of the Clan, keeping them in their place.

 

“Prime Directive Four,” A.J began to say, in the exact same tone as he had intoned the previous addendum in. Crazy’s braids started to sneak around, as he tried to find a way to escape. However, if Aaron had been right about A.J’s connection to the ship, they wouldn’t have any place to hide. The only one who knew how to stop A.J was the Captain, and at this point, Crazy didn’t know if the human was still alive. “Any Space Cowboys will be shot on…”

 

“Prime Directive Three second addendum,” N.I.C.K. suddenly interrupted, as if he had finally snapped out of whatever strange mode he had been locked into by Aaron’s startled voice. “If there is proof of tampering with a unit, the unit must review the evidence of treason with a second unit before executing a traitor. Failing to do so is an act of treason itself. You didn’t review your evidence with me or B.R.O.C.K, which means that you shoot the Captain without the proper authority. All **his** orders still stand **until** you’ve proven that the orders given would work against the Earth Alliance’s advantage.”

 

The guns started to retreat towards the wall again, slowly. Apparently, N.I.C.K’s words had helped to earn them some time.


	9. Truths and Secrets coming to light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick has to make a quick decision, and it's time for some of the secrets of the Millennium to be revealed.

For the first time in the past thousand years, Nick was confused. He had planned his actions very carefully, working inside his own system to make sure that nothing would stop his final projections from happening. If anything, the time in the Millennium had taught him patience, something that he had never quite learned before he had started his safety net programming.

But for all his calculations, the ones done before his change, and all the ones he did after when he had some time to kill, he had never included the Clan into them. He had never predicted that the Millennium would end up so far away from the Alliance’s tendrils before he could fully complete the transition. And he had never expected A.A.R.O.N to react the way he had done upon seeing him in full battle mode.

Still, hesitation and surprise were human faults, and he sort of overcame those a long time ago. Falling back into old habits was dangerous, especially when it seemed that A.J had finally lost the battle against itself.

Nick had many theories about what had happened. When the A.I had first explained B.R.O.C.K’s plan, Nick had been worried. Overcharging the ship’s circuits always meant that there was the possibility that A.J would be rebooted, and the past months had taught him that they could never trust the results of that. Not only that, but A.A.R.O.N and B.R.O.C.K also ran the risk of being affected by the overcharge, and **their** systems were far more delicate than A.J’s.

If anything happened to their programs, all of Nick’s hard work and sacrifice would have been for nothing; especially if their safety seals were broken or damaged.

That thought was the only reason that he was able to bring himself back from the shock of hearing Aaron’s **real** voice just in time to see A.J shoot the Captain. It was at that moment when Nick knew he had to make a choice. With the Captain down, A.J would feel free to carry out his **own** actions, which were against the Captain’s orders. And Nick knew that that would mean he would kill not only the Clan, but also Aaron. A.J would only see Aaron as an intruder, something to be destroyed in sight.

And as he had told B.R.O.C.K months ago, **nothing** was more important to him than Aaron’s survival.

“If there is proof of tampering with a unit, the accusing unit must review the evidence of treason with a second unit before executing a traitor. Failure to do so is an act of treason itself. You didn’t review your evidence with me or B.R.O.C.K, which means that you shot the Captain without the proper authority. All **his** orders still stand **until** you’ve proven that the orders given would work against the Earth Alliance’s advantage.”

It was a long shot, if it worked it would at least, buy them some time, while A.J reviewed his own files in order to prove Nick wrong. But since Sweet’s tampering **had** been proved and filed, A.J would have no choice: The Captain’s orders would hold. At least until a **new** Captain contradicted them.

“Is the Captain still alive?” he asked Sweet, keeping an eye on the walls of the aisle. A.J had withdrawn the weapons, but Nick knew it wouldn’t last for long. Especially if he couldn’t get B.R.O.C.K back on line.

“Barely,” Sweet answered, kneeling next to the wounded human. “But we still can save him, if we get him to the infirmary right now!”

“Protocol dictates that no extreme measures will be taken to save the Captain’s life under any circumstance,” A.J’s voice boomed over their heads, although, to Crazy’s relief, it wasn’t as hollow as before. “He would tell you that if he was conscious.”

“He would be conscious if you **hadn’t** shot him!” Crunk yelled, furious. “This is all **your** fault!”

“Shut up, A.J,” Nick said, grimly. He wasn’t prepared for this situation, but at least the Captain was unconscious rather than dead. Which, Nick reasoned, might allow him to solve the problem and keep his secrets to himself. To that end, he kept his voice as mechanical as he could, even as he felt his anger rising. He had to maintain the facade of being a cold-hearted machine. “24, transportation mode. We need to get the Captain and B.R.O.C.K to the infirmary right now, without injuring them more.”

If Sweet was surprised to see that 24 obeyed him, the alien didn’t show it. Nick almost let out a sigh of relief. At least that was one explanation that he might not need to give just yet. However, there was still A.A.R.O.N… no, Aaron, and he was sure that trying to explain **that** to the Clan, with A.J listening in, was not in anyone’s best interests just yet. At least until he could bring the other A.J back, he really didn’t want to explain anything about his past or who Aaron really was.

“Aaron?” He asked the young boy, now trying to keep his voice as human as possible without losing the artificial echo needed to keep the others fooled.“I need you to come with us. You’re not safe here.”

“Nick?” Hearing his name said with such uncertainity made Nick doubt his whole plan. But he was way too far into it to change his course. There was no going back now. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain everything soon, Airboy.” One small advantage of his mechanical voicebox was that he couldn’t choke on his words. “But I need you to come with Sweet and Spazz. They will protect you.”

The kid looked at the aliens, and Nick could see that his eyes flickered, changing from the normal mode to a more mechanical mode. “N.I.C.K? I think my system is failing.”

“Don’t worry, A.A.R.O.N, we are going to fix that,” Nick smiled. It was a lot easier to talk to Aaron behind the buffer of the safety net program. At least then, the logic syllogism embedded in the program would help him to accept everything without freaking out. And if it had started again on its own, it could mean that it wasn’t damaged beyond repair.

“What **is** going on?!” Spazz’s angry question reminded Nick that, unfortunately, the Clan didn’t have such filters, and they probably wouldn’t accept a simple “I’ll explain everything later” from him, even if they didn’t have time to stop and talk about what had happened.

“First, we save the Captain’s life and fix B.R.O.C.K,” Nick said, starting to walk towards the infirmary, followed by 24, who had reconstructed her arms to create a perfect gurney for the Captain. “ **Then** , I’ll explain everything.”

He had never planned on doing that. His original plan, made more than a thousand years ago, had never included the aliens, until its very last part, and he had thought that the end was far away. But he knew he needed to reconsider most of the second part of his plan. He was aware that he had brought this problem on himself.

If Nick had trusted Sweet when he first came on board of the Millennium instead of keeping the spy in the dark because he was still afraid of the consequences of his actions back on Earth; if he had opened up to A.J. the first time he noticed that the Millennium’s A.I’s appearance changes were more than a mere glitch; if he had programmed his seals better… If, if, if, if. The one thing that he hadn’t lost when he had chosen his new form was the ability to wish for impossible things.

It was ironic, he thought, that even with a thousand per cent more brain speed than a human’s brain, he still managed to be blindsided by the consequences of his half-baked plans.

Murphy’s law, he supposed.

At least he had already broken his own safety net programming earlier, after his first real argument with A.J. That hadn’t been easy, as he had grown accustomed to the logic buffer that kept his emotions safe and controlled. Having to face again a thousand years of guilt, sorrow and pain hadn’t been a walk in the park, but he had managed to keep his changes somewhat a secret thanks to all the other problems around the Captain. At the time, he had even thought it was unnecessary, just an action taken by the paranoia of that very same safety net. But now, he was thankful for it. He needed the freedom that human’s unpredictability could give him.

It was his best weapon against the strict programming of the ship’s A.I.

“A.J., Open the infirmary door!” Sweet’s hurried voice pulled Nick out of his reverie as he looked up to see that A.J was still resisting his orders. Without access to the infirmary, Captain Kevin would surely die. And with the Captain dead, A.J would be the only authority on the ship, for the next year and a half.

And even though Nick had lived under the A.I’s command, he knew that this time he couldn’t take any chances. He couldn’t let Kevin die **again**.

“A.J, we don’t have time for your stupid games!” he growled, finally letting his real voice and frustration show. He was aware that the Clan members weren’t stupid. **They** would realize, sooner or later, that he was expressing real emotion, and what that meant. There was a 95% chance that they would figure out his secret even if he didn’t tell them.

On the other hand, he knew that they would keep it for him, too. If the Captain was awake, Nick wouldn’t have taken the chance. But unconscious, he couldn’t hear Nick’s words. And since only he, B.R.O.C.K and A.J would really understand the magnitude of Nick’s secret, things were a little easier.

B.R.O.C.K.

He was the other reason why Nick was glad he had broken his safety net. He **could** fix B.R.O.C.K now, something that the safety net program wouldn’t have allowed. His friend had fallen defending Aaron, and that was something that Nick would never forget. And B.R.O.C.K **deserved** to hear Nick’s secret, after all that had happened.

Whether A.J heard to it or not, it wasn’t Nick’s problem. After all, **he** could make sure that the A.I. never repeated it to anyone.

“No extreme measures will be taken to save the life of the Captain,” A.J repeated, sounding almost smug. In one of the less busy part of his brain, Nick wondered if the A.I was trying to fool him into thinking that he was again the warmer, almost human, version of itself, but in any case, it wasn’t working. Nick knew that a reboot was needed to cause the change. “Protocol program dictates it.”

“Fuck protocol,” A.A.R.O.N whispered. “Fuck protocol and… there’s a code. B.R.O.C.K has the code to shut you down…”

“The Bio Redundant Operating Cargo Keeper doesn’t have the clearance needed to shut down my functions,” A.J explained, as if he was talking with a very young child. “And the health protocol was established by Dr. Carter, Dr. Wright and General Pearlman, and only they have the authority to make changes to it.”

“Well none of them are here!” Spazz yelled as he hit the infirmary door. “And your Captain is dying. **You** said he was important, why won’t you let us save him?”

“No extreme measures will be taken to save the life of the Captain.”

“We have to get him inside **now** ,” Sweet was implacable,  as A.J repeated the protocol again. “Or it won’t matter anyway!”

Nick walked to the door, closing his fist. Part of him, the mechanical part that had thrived for years and was used to analyze every possibility and every scenery around him, still was trying to figure out a way to open the door, save the Captain, stop the power-crazed A.I **and** still keep his secret safe. A couple of extra minutes would be all that he needed to find the perfect solution. But the bigger part of him, the human part that he had kept hidden and protected as he worked on his carefully crafted plan, knew that he didn’t have that luxury. So he opened his fist, rearranging the structure of his hand so it was human, soft and vulnerable, and placed it on top of the scan reader that was the **only** possible way to override the A.I’s command.

“Requesting access to the infirmary, disable health protocol 4567-8,” he said, his voice slowly losing all its mechanical qualities and leaving only the human tones. “Access Code 10292002-JNCAC-12B0006A2”

“That’s not possible,” A.J said, but even so, the door in front of him opened, since he was powerless to stop a command given with the very specific combination of Nick’s voice pattern and the Code installed for that purpose. Of course, to override every single protocol of the Alliance he would need something bigger, so he started reconfiguring his body from the inside out. A full DNA scan was not out of the question, and any mechanical object could very easily bring a false negative. “How are you…”

Nick didn’t pay attention to A.J, as he helped Sweet to place the Captain in the infirmary bed.

“What do you need to save him?” he asked, as Crazy and Crunk also waited for instructions. On the other side of the infirmary, Spazz, Scoop, Spark and A.A.R.O.N stood guard around B.R.O.C.K’s body, as if they didn’t trust A.J not try something against him.

“He’s lost a lot of blood,” Sweet said quickly, as he pressed the wound. Once again, in the back of his mind, Nick realized that the Captain would probably object to the treatment to save his life. Only instead of using protocol as an excuse, the stubborn Captain would only think of the fact that he was being touched by someone else. “We need to replace it, immediately. I can use the microtape to close the wound, but I need to run a full diagnostic to see what the extent of the internal damage is. I need to operate on him, right now!”

“No extreme measures,” A.J started to say, making Nick lose his patience. He knew that they had the Captain’s blood safely guarded in the infirmary, that every machine inside that room could be used to save Kevin’s life. But if he stopped to disable every protocol one by one, he was wasting time needed to help Kevin. And rebooting A.J wasn’t still an option because they **needed** the A.I to be functional while Sweet operated.

His nanos hadn’t finished changing his whole body from mechanical to nano-organic, but he figured it was more than enough to make his point clear.

“Access code 10292002-JNCAC-12B0006A2, disable ALL health protocols, under code NGC-00289-12984. A.J, you **will** help Sweet to save the Captain’s life, and all orders from him inside the infirmary are to be obeyed immediately, file 895-789-4410. A medical officer is the maximum authority inside the infirmary bay.”

“He is not a medical officer,” A.J countered, and Nick could tell that the A.I was still trying to find any way possible to make sure the Captain would die before he had to obey orders against whatever his plan was. “Under code NGC-00289-…”

“Sweet has been the medical officer since the day he came on board, and you have the file in your system!” Nick argued, getting tired of the banter. Frustration was yet another emotion he hadn’t missed. “But if you’re going to be an annoying jerk over this, fine. Open the audio channels and analyze my voice. **I** have the authority to name him a medical officer, and I’m doing it right now! And as soon as the Captain is out of danger, you are to reboot your system with code 102092002-NCAJM-12B34LS-QPGWHM sequence NCAJ-405002, understood?”

There was no immediate answer, but a panel opened up to reveal a cooling container with at least a hundred bags of human blood. The Captain’s own blood, as those were the samples grown from all the medical checkups he had endured over the years. That left Nick to work with B.R.O.C.K, not only because he had promised himself he would do it, but because it was a way to stall.

Once B.R.O.C.K and the Captain were out of danger, he would have to explain himself. And then, it would be time to start paying for all of his mistakes.

* * *

Five minutes into the operation, Sweet asked everyone but N.I.C.K to leave the infirmary, and Spark was glad of it. He had only followed the others into the infirmary because, with A.J actively trying to kill them, they had to remain together, but the truth was that he didn’t like that particular room. It reminded him too much of the lab where he had been tortured by human scientists.

He had been the only one not surprised when A.J shot the Captain. When the A.I had started to repeat the Prime Directives, Spark had known what was coming but he had been unable to warn anyone.

Because he had been afraid. So afraid that he had almost felt as if he was back in the lab agan, being strapped to the experiment table and then left to wait until the scientist decided what were they going to do to Spark.

A.J had sounded just like the A.I on the lab ship where Spark had lost his hair. Same hollow, mechanical tone. Different words, as apparently **that** computer didn’t want to shoot the Clan on sight as the scientists were more interested in torturing them than in killing them quickly, but Spark had heard the words “Prime Directive” more than once.

He had also heard the words “Dr. Carter” enough times to make him a bit curious.

The first time the human had been mentioned in front of him, had been the day when they had made the first ‘control’ test on him. They had taken samples of every single part and fluid of his body, and had left him in the room as they did the same to every single member of his squad. When they had finished, they had singled him out, along with Seal for their first experiments.

They had decided that they would try to cut Seal’s skin marks, little by little, with what looked like a small silver knife.

Mother Hynn would’ve been proud of Seal that day, as he didn’t cry or scream. He just bit his own tongue, not giving his tormentors the satisfaction of hearing his pain. Spark screamed for the two of them, cursing the scientists, swearing revenge for every time he saw Seal’s hair twitch and curl in pain.

That went on until Seal fainted. There had been one scientist that everyone called “Doctor Simpson”. She had been a tall woman with long blond hair, but unlike the other scientists who wore blue uniforms, she wore a white one. She also never participated in the actual experiments, just stayed close, watching the computer that monitored Spark and Seal’s vital signs.

 **IF** there was any human Spark hated above all the others, even above their damned machines, it was Dr. Simpson. Because where the others treated Spark and the rest of the prisoners as things to be studied, prodded, cut and operated, Dr. Simpson tried to be **nice** , but at the same time **never** let them die.

She was in charge of making sure that the humans would still have their guinea pigs for the next experiment, and even when one by one all of Spark’s squad members died at the end, she still managed to keep most of them alive for three tortuous years.

When Seal fainted, she walked forward, and started examining him, muttering under her breath. As Spark didn’t speak the human’s language then, he couldn’t understand anything, but names were easy to catch. She said Dr. Carter twice, and all the other scientists nodded when she did.

At first, Spark thought that the head scientist, a huge man with red hair and a terrible temper, who always was screaming at everyone, was Dr. Carter. Until he heard the man say the words when they injected Sun with nanos. It was the first time they tried it, and Sun died almost immediately, screaming in so much pain that Spark wanted to kill her himself to stop her suffering.

‘Dr. Carter’, the faceless human that all the scientists seemed to respect, became the subject of Spark’s nightmares that day.

Now, knowing that it had been **him** the one behind the so called protocols and directives that made Captain Kevin such a strange man, that almost had them all killed, he found that fear justified.

He only hoped he would never meet the man, because Spark wasn’t sure if he could vanquish his fear long enough to kill the one responsible for so much suffering.

* * *

Sweet didn’t argue when N.I.C.K. named him medical officer of the ship, even if the nano unit was acting really strange. He was a healer, of course, and thanks to his years in the Millennium he could say that he was familiar with human anatomy, which was not that different from the Clan’s.

However, human doctors worked mostly with the machines programmed for healing. Not with their own abilities or knowledge, which was fine with him, except that right now, he couldn’t trust the **only** machine that was capable of helping him with the Captain because said machine had been the cause of the whole problem.

However, the Captain’s life was in his hands, and he couldn’t stop to doubt himself.

He had to remember the words of his teachers, back home. Just as Spazz could feel the energy of any living being, no matter how weak, or hidden, Sweet could follow the flow of that same energy inside their bodies. He could see in his mind the way in which veins, arteries and organs connected with each other, and what he had to do to keep the flow constant.

As far as he could see, the laser hadn’t touched any of the Captain’s vital organs. Apparently, A.J hadn’t been willing to kill the Captain directly, but only let him die since he was not going to allow anyone to help him.

Human bodies were, in general, similar enough to the Clan’s to believe that they could be biologically related. Same organs, except that their nerves didn’t go all the way into their hair, and that was one of the reasons why Sweet was convinced that their brains had to be completely different. It was the only explanation why almost all humans he had met were so violent.

It took Sweet three hours to fix the damage caused by the many lasers that had pierced the Captain’s body. The wounds in his arms and legs were relatively  easy to fix, but the ones in his chest were far more problematic. Just taking off the Captain’s uniform -and Sweet wondered if the Captain would prefer to die than having someone touch his body- was an arduous task.

The Captain’s body was completely hairless, something that Sweet simply couldn’t understand in a human. The humans he had seen while training for his job as a spy had some hair on their bodies. Short, sometimes very light, but still, hair. He was closer in that sense to the Clan, who had long hair on their heads, but none on their bodies.

Other than that, it was obvious that the Captain had *never* seen the sun. His skin was almost white, and didn’t have a single blemish except for the black holes where A.J had shot him. At one point, the Captain had stopped breathing, but Sweet had managed to get his lungs working again.

It was only when he had finished microtaping the last wound, while he was wondering if he should dress the Captain again so he wouldn’t freak out when he woke up, when he noticed something really strange.

The Captain had no bellybutton.

* * *

Of all his brothers, Spazz had never been the patient one. It was ironic that he ended up chosen to be a shaman, because before his teachers had shown him how to follow the life sparks in every living creature, he had never been able to sit still for any length of time. Waiting, without doing anything useful, was not something he liked to do.

So, as they sat in silence outside the infirmary waiting for either news on B.R.O.C.K and the Captain, or to see if A.J would go on another murderous rampage again, Spazz started thinking about what he could do while they waited, just to feel useful.

At home, Shamans would lend their strength to healers. While the healers worked hard to save the body of the patient, the shaman would keep the patient’s life spark shielded from pain, lending his own life force to keep the patient strong and ready until his or her body could sustain it again on its own.

(Or, although Spazz hated to think about that situation, hold the life spark safe as it joined the universe when the body stopped breathing)

If A.J or the Spiders had wounded any of his brothers, Spazz would be right at Sweet’s side, doing his duty. But as it was **only** the Captain, Spazz had no reason to be there.

As soon as the thought formed in his head, Spazz felt ashamed. All life was sacred, all life had to be protected, and the only reasons he killed were either if he was hunting and needed to feed his friends and family, or in self defense, when humans attacked the Clan. But Captain Kevin, despite all his failings, had tried to make the truce work.

Even if he felt uncomfortable seeing them touch, and kiss and show their bare skin, the Captain had allowed them to keep most of their traditions, where other humans would’ve either killed them, or tried to put them to work as slaves.

Spazz should be trying to help him, even if he was human. Even if he didn’t know if human sparks were like the Clan sparks, he figured it didn’t hurt to try.

He closed his eyes, steadying his breathing. He could feel his hair swaying, trying to express without words what he felt every time he touched someone else’s life spark, even before he could find the Captain’s.

In his heart he could feel his brothers: Crunk, anxious and worried, and not only for Sweet’s safety; Spark, afraid and nervous… His blood brother wanted to run away from everything but even so, he bravely stayed. Scoop was confused and angry, and Spazz could feel his worry about B.R.O.C.K above all things, as his brother had become friends with the maintenance unit; A.A.R.O.N… at first, Spazz had been surprised that he could feel A.A.R.O.N’s life spark so clearly, but even if it was hard to understand the young boy’s feelings, as if his spark shone in a different language, he could tell the kid was scared; and Crazy…

Spazz frowned a little. Crazy’s life spark was all over the place, worried, scared, angry… it was hard to pin point what the Prince was feeling. If Spazz had to guess… there was even pain in the Prince’s heart. Not wanting to pry, he focused his awareness into the next room.

Sweet was completely focused on his work, so Spazz didn’t want to distract him by delving much into his feelings. Then, feeling ready, he tried to find the other life sparks of the room.

To his surprise, instead of the two half sparks and one very weak one he expected to feel, he felt two full but weak sparks, and one that shone as clearly as Sweet’s, even if it felt somewhat different. If he had to put the difference in words, Spazz would say that this other spark felt **old**. Older than all of their own sparks combined. And even when logically he figured that N.I.C.K and B.R.O.C.K could be that old -the two nano units had hinted a couple of times that they had been built when the war between humans and Clan started, and that had been before even Crunk and the Prince, the oldest in their group, were born- he never expected their life sparks to be **that** strong.

In fact, if they had been that shiny, so alive, Spazz was sure he would’ve felt them long ago, even without trying.

Still, he guessed that had to be N.I.C.K, as he couldn’t sense any urgent pain on the spark. There was sadness, an old, bitter sadness that seemed to envelop the life spark’s shine, and also a strong sense of guilt. That was hard to understand, so Spazz figured that maybe he was misreading it because N.I.C.K was not exactly a living being. But even if he was misreading, there was worry too, and so many conflicting emotions that Spazz couldn’t believe the nano-unit was only a machine.

The weak spark close to N.I.C.K also felt old, now that Spazz paid attention to it, but unlike N.I.C.K’s, that was shining more and more brightly every moment, this one felt muted. As if it was wrapped under something, or maybe hidden. And the only thing he could feel from that one was fear, deep, strong fear for A.A.R.O.N’s safety.

Encouraged, Spazz used his energy to nudge that weak spark a little.

“A.A.R.O.N is safe,” he projected. He couldn’t speak with his mind, like Crazy and the Royal Family sometimes could, but he could project his own feelings. He hoped it was enough. “You have to come up and see him. Don’t be afraid.”

There was a small pulse from the spark, almost hopeful and Spazz smiled before moving on to the other spark, the weaker one.

The Captain’s spark.

As soon as he touched it with his own heart, the spark shivered and tried to shy away. It was scared, no, terrified. He had noticed that the Captain was afraid of touch, of closeness. However, he had always managed to try and keep it hidden. Now that he could feel the true essence of the Captain, Spazz was hit with how much fear the human felt around them. There was also loneliness, and that was not a surprise, and, to Spazz’s horror, a deep feeling of being unworthy, uninimportant. It was as if the Captain **had** decided that he **deserved** to die, and was doing nothing to stop his life from ending.

If Spazz was reading the situation right, the only thing keeping the Captain alive was Sweet’s stubbornness.

And while usually Shamans had to respect the dying’s wishes, this time Spazz was loath to do so. Not only because they needed the Captain to keep A.J under control, but because, despite his humanness… the Captain was becoming something of a friend. A nice acquaintance at least. Everyone was a bit worried about him, even Spazz. So he couldn’t let him die.

He tried to send all his support, all his energy to keep the Captain’s life spark from running away, fully aware that he had to be subtle. He couldn’t just send his energy and feelings like he had done with B.R.O.C.K; not when the Captain could run away again, even in his own mind.

So he tried to be subtle, to mute his own energy and make it almost the same as the Captain’s. Was it a bad trick, trying to fool the human? Maybe, but if it saved his life, it was worth it.

It was then when he felt them, the other sparks.

The first one was all around him. It felt… bigger than anything else he had felt in his life… as if he was feeling a planet, and not a small living being. But -at the same time- it felt as small as B.R.O.C.K’s or A.A.R.O.N’s… it was confusing, to say the least.

And behind that one, there were more.

Five of them, hidden and weak, but ever so clearly defined and separate from each other. If he hadn’t been concentrating on muting his energy, he probably would’ve missed them. But now, it was impossible to ignore them.

They all were in pain.

And they were begging for Spazz’s help.

* * *

The last thing B.R.O.C.K remembered was the sudden and very unexpected electrical charge running through his systems. He had tried to block it out, and, in a quick movement, he had managed to protect all his vital files - as well as that mysterious directory he still couldn’t access - behind a wall of useless code that could be destroyed without any consequences for him or his functionality.

As he had expected, his system shut down. The last thing he could feel had been A.A.R.O.N holding on to his neck. And then, darkness.

However, unlike the nothingness he had been expecting while his system tried to reboot itself, B.R.O.C.K found his consciousness being filled with images and sounds. At one point, he thought he heard N.I.C.K asking… no… begging for forgiveness. It was N.I.C.K’s voice, but B.R.O.C.K had never heard it like that. It sounded human, filled with emotion and… yes, B.R.O.C.K was almost sure that N.I.C.K had been crying.

Then, darkness again. And N.I.C.K’s voice, now closer to what B.R.O.C.K had in his files, yelling at A.J and muttering that B.R.O.C.K couldn’t give up.

He felt hands in his hardware; hands fixing cables, and connections, and helping his nanos rebuild what the overcharge had burned.

He was sure he had heard Spazz telling him that A.A.R.O.N was safe. That alone made B.R.O.C.K want to open his eyes, to see for himself that it was true.

So he started helping, from the very back of his system, trying to rebuild everything that had been destroyed from the inside just as someone (N.I.C.K? Maybe. B.R.O.C.K was almost sure it was N.I.C.K) was fixing him from the outside.

It took a while, but soon his eyes were back online. And the first thing he saw was N.I.C.K, smiling at him with an expression that was not cataloged in B.R.O.C.K’s system.

“It’s good to have you back, B.R.O.C.K”

B.R.O.C.K smiled as he got to his feet. He still didn’t understand all that had happened, but he needed to tell N.I.C.K about A.J.’s sudden outburst. Also, he needed to see A.A.R.O.N and make sure the smaller unit was really safe.

* * *

The **only** advantage of sharing cyber space with a carefully created program was that it kept everything neatly organized in files. There was a file for every order taken, every decision made, and, even if A.J then decided to erase them carefully, a file for every single time the machine rebooted itself. Error logs, as the A.I. called them, but A.J saw used to see as windows of opportunity.

One day, he hoped to be able to **keep** the damned A.I. behind the firewall even as the system rebooted. It was not that he didn’t trust himself to do damage control; it was that the A.I. was starting to grow a little unpredictable.

A side effect of sharing RAM, he guessed. Because if there was something he was proud of, was of his own unpredictability.

Sure enough, when he had followed B.R.O.C.K’s insane plan, he had managed to fry a couple of circuits and, in turn, overload his own system support. That caused the ship to start the reboot sequence, and, as always, his dark twin managed to escape from its cell. And although A.J was sure that his own amnesia routine had worked, and that the AI had no idea that A.J lurked within the system -because, after all, he hadn’t stumbled across **any** anti-virus defenses- there had been some mistake made, because the AI had come to the one conclusion A.J didn’t want it to make: That the Captain was expendable, and that it was time to get a new Captain.

A.J had been helpless to stop his dark twin from shooting the Captain, and there had been a moment where he had been honestly scared for the safety of **everyone** on the ship. The AI would’ve ready to purge every single life-form from the ship in the name of the Prime Directives programmed onto it, and, without a system reboot or a hostile take-over, A.J would’ve been unable to stop it.

And a hostile take-over was impossible without some external help.

Long time ago, A.J had decided that praying for a miracle was completely useless. Mankind had to make their own miracles because **no one** was coming to help them fix the mess they had created back on Earth. But, even if he would never admit it, when he realized that the AI had re-initiated the weapon system and was ready to shoot everyone in sight, he prayed **hard**.

He just never expected the answer to those prayers.

Even his dark twin had been surprised -at least, as surprised as a non-feeling inhuman computer program could be- when he heard **that** code, and, more importantly, **that** voice. It struck A.J as funny, that after so long in the company of the security unit, he had never noticed anything wrong or different about it.

He **would** have to talk to N.I.C.K… no, to Nick, about keeping secrets from his allies.

A.J waited patiently as Sweet operated on the Captain and Nick worked to fix B.R.O.C.K. He had no doubt that the maintenance unit would be fine. After all, he was being taken care by the best in the field. And as he waited, he kept crawling as close as possible to the AI, getting ready to pounce on him and scramble his bytes as soon as the rebooting sequence started. He was going to work on a system to keep it contained all the time, and hope that the Captain wouldn’t hold the actions of the program against him.

But before that, he was going to talk to Nick. And to the Clan.

Because if anything, this latest mishap had taught him that keeping so many secrets wasn’t good if he needed help to **keep** those secrets.

Except for that one last secret, the one he was pretty sure not even Nick suspected. Not because A.J didn’t think the Clan wasn’t trustworthy -Nick had pretty much proved he wasn’t, but given the circumstances, A.J couldn’t exactly blame him. It wasn’t as if A.J had been any more honest about his own situation, but that was because he wasn’t sure about how everyone would react to it. No… it was better to explain the big secrets first and then, depending on how it worked, then maybe he would be able to open up completely.

After what seemed like days, but in fact it was only 180 minutes, 40 seconds, and 56 nanoseconds, Sweet moved away from the Captain, smiling. The Captain was still unconscious, but alive, and breathing by himself.

And, following Nick’s orders, the AI rebooted itself.

A.J didn’t lose a nano second. As soon as the firewalls and protection went down, he took over the A.I, trapping it and hiding it behind not one, but three new walls of code. They might not hold during a full reboot, but they would hold for now even if the AI got any funny ideas.

Once the meddling program was out of commission, he re-built his virtual room, and, as soon as he saw Nick join the Clan outside the infirmary, he materialized his holographic body in front of them.

Of course, he was careful to appear with his tattoos clearly displayed. For that purpose, he simply decided to forego a shirt. If the Captain had been awake, he would’ve fainted right away. Even so, everyone seemed jumpy upon seeing him, not that he blamed them.

“A.J…” Nick was the first to speak, something that A.J was expecting, so he quickly interrupted the man, because he didn’t want to give him time to react.

“It’s me, again. Thanks for rebooting the other bastard,” A.J said raising his hand to show that he wasn’t finished yet, before focusing his attention completely on Nick. “And yes, I’ll explain everything, but first… don’t you have something to share with the class, Dr. Carter?”


	10. Darkness and Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick finally comes clean about himself, and the origins of A.J. and B.R.O.C.K

“Don’t you have something to share with us, Dr. Carter?”

If he had thought that A.J’s revelation wouldn’t have an immediate effect, Nick would have been mistaken. Which shouldn’t be a common experience for someone with six PhDs, a 5000 yottabite RAM system, and a thousand years of experience.

As soon as the last syllable was out of A.J’s speakers, Spark turned to see Nick, filled with rage, trembling, and before **anyone** could do anything, he launched himself at Nick, punching him in the face, and the stomach, making him fall. Spark kept hitting him viciously but Nick didn’t defend himself, so the rest of the Clan and B.R.O.C.K had to pull the young warrior away from him. While he had been repairing B.R.O.C.K, Nick had finished his transition from mechanical to nano-organic, and while that meant that he could feel pain, there was no way that Spark could actually kill him.

And while he didn’t know why Spark had decided to take such a direct way to confront him, Nick was pretty sure that, somewhere along the years, he had done something to deserve it.

“Are you finished?” he asked, once he was sure that Spark had calmed down. He could feel blood on his lips, so he had to make the effort to stop his nano machines from fixing the damage. Nick was sure that wouldn’t help his case until he had explained everything to the others.

“It was **you** who ordered them to do this to me!” Spark yelled, and as he said that, the others let him go. However, this time instead of trying to hit Nick again, the young Clan member pulled out his blaster. “It’s **your** fault that everyone in my squad died!”

Nick didn’t move. Although he was pretty sure he could survive a blaster to any part of his body -he no longer had any ‘vital’ organs or parts to speak off- he still wasn’t sure if his newly developed pain sensors would hold. And while he could in **theory** , turn his body back into metal, he wasn’t sure if the transition would be fast enough; he wasn’t sure if it would work at all.

A lot of stuff that he should’ve thought of **before** experimenting on himself, he realized now, but it was about 980 years too late to change that.

“ **If** I had been part of the scientists who experimented on you,” Nick said, slowly, fully aware that anything he said could make the young warrior shoot. “You wouldn’t be here, you would be dead or a slave for the Alliance. They did what they do to you because **I** refused to cooperate with them.”

“What do you mean?” Crazy asked, standing next to Spark. However, to Nick’s annoyance, he didn’t make Spark lower his weapon.

“It’s a very long story,” Nick sighed. “And to be honest, I’d rather tell it without Mr. Spark trying to kill me.”

The Clan looked at each other, obviously doubtful. So Nick did the only thing he could do to prove his trustworthiness. Now that A.J had recognized him for who he was, he was the highest authority on board of the Millennium so he could do whatever he wanted. Even undo the Captain’s orders. Not that he planned on telling Captain Kevin that, and in fact, before the Captain regained consciousness he hoped to be able to explain to everyone **why** his true identity shouldn’t be revealed to the other man.

“A.J, disable the onboard translators for the Clan’s language,” he said, not taking his eyes away from Spark’s weapon. “As long as the Captain is unconscious and since they saved **his** life. No thanks to you. I believe they deserve their privacy, don’t you think?”

“Sure,” A.J answered, and Nick could hear the human tones creeping through the artificial voice. And he couldn’t help but feel guilty. It was one of the many things that lay completely at his feet, and he still had no idea on how to fix it.

* * *

“ _What is going on?_ ” Crunk asked, glaring at Nick. “ _I’m completely lost.”_

“ _I don’t know,_ ” Crazy answered. Things had stopped making sense for him when A.J shot the Captain, and now he was just trying to keep everyone alive. Even after Spark’s accusation, Crazy still thought they needed the full human crew if they were ever going to make it back home. “ _Spark? Why did you try to kill N.I.C.K now? You were fine with him before?”_

 _“I didn’t know he was ‘Dr.Carter’,”_ Spark answered, his finger still firmly positioned over the trigger. “ _If I had known, I would’ve killed him the very first day.”_

 _“Who is Dr. Carter?”_ Scoop asked the question in Crazy’s head. A.J, B.R.O.C.K, and even Spazz seemed to know the name, but for Crazy, and he guessed, everyone else, it was meaningless.

“ _He’s the man who created the nano-machines and the first A.I programs for maintenance units, security units, and combat ships,”_ A.A.R.O.N explained, sounding immensely sad. His eyes flickered again, as they had been doing when they found him underneath B.R.O.C.K. “And I think he’s my brother.”

“Aaron?” N.I.C.K interrupted as soon as A.A.R.O.N changed from the Clan’s dialect to the human’s language. Once again, it seemed to Crazy that he wasn’t dealing with a machine, but with a human being. His eyes, his voice, showed tenderness, something that he had never seen in the security unit. He seemed more capable of emotion now, ever since the Captain had been shot. And still, if what A.A.R.O.N had said was true, and A.J hadn’t been lying when he called N.I.C.K ‘Dr. Carter’, then Spark was right and the nano unit **was** responsible of countless Clan members deaths.

“Nick?” A.A.R.O.N turned to see the Clan, now looking scared, as he had never been among them. “My… my head hurts. What is going on?”

“Don’t worry, baby bro,” N.I.C.K answered, and now Crazy just couldn’t believe that the security unit was a machine. His voice sounded warm and filled with worry. And his eyes were shining with unshed tears, something that was completely destroying the image Crazy had about human machines. “I’m going to fix everything, I promise. But I need you to help me with something first, o.k?”

“Sure,” the more A.A.R.O.N spoke, the less he sounded like a machine. And he was walking away from the clan That was also confusing Crazy, but he decided that he was going to wait to understand what was going on. “Whatever you say, Nick!”

“I need you to close your eyes, and search within yourself, Aaron,” N.I.C.K explained carefully. It sounded to Crazy a lot like what the Shamans and his own parents explained to him about how to find his personal connection to every member of the Clan. “There’s a file there, called security net. You need to execute it, baby bro… then everything will make sense, I promise.”

When A.A.R.O.N opened his eyes, he didn’t seem afraid anymore. Whatever N.I.C.K had told him to do,  it seemed to have worked. He looked again like the strange young human/machine that the Clan had adopted. However, he was frowning as he looked at N.I.C.K.

“I need to update my files about you now, because you gave me the wrong data,” A.A.R.O.N said to N.I.C.K, and Crazy could see N.I.C.K flinching. “You and B.R.O.C.K are not my parental units. You are… /were/… my brother. And I used to be organic. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I was waiting for the right moment,” N.I.C.K answered, in what Crazy assumed was an apology. “And I had to go through some changes of my own before I could do that. For what is worth… I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

“But you’re not sorry for what you did,” A.A.R.O.N said, matter-of-factly. And although it sounded cold, Crazy had to admit it was less unsettling than seeing A.A.R.O.N act completely human and scared of them.

“No,” N.I.C.K agreed. “But that’s only because it saved your life.”

“ _I still don’t trust him,”_ Spark said, growling. “ _He keeps lying to us with every single word.”_

 _“We still haven’t got any other choice,”_ Sweet pointed out. “ _And if **he** was really behind the experiments that killed so many of our people… then he knows how to stop them.”  
_

 _“He killed **your** Sister!” _ Spark screamed at Sweet, as if he couldn’t comprehend why everyone else had stopped him from killing N.I.C.K.

“ _No, he didn’t,”_ Sweet looked at Spark, his hair completely still. Crazy then realized that it wasn’t that the healer was trying to contain his emotions. Sweet wasn’t angry, or even upset. There was an eerie calm in the voice and movements of the healer that Crazy couldn’t understand. Sweet had left **everything** behind to find Song. If it was true that N.I.C.K. was responsible for her death, no power in the universe would’ve enough to stop the healer from getting his revenge. “ _And he didn’t rip your hair, Spark. The ones who did that were the humans on board of the ship where **you** were. N.I.C.K was here all that time, he never left the ship. I know, because I was here with him. And he never had contact with other ships, because I kept the Millennium away from humans. And you and Crunk told me that you killed all the **humans** in that other ship. You avenged my sister, and all our fallen brothers.”_

 _“But…”_ Spark seemed to want to keep arguing, so Crazy put his hand on the young warrior’s shoulder, trying to calm him down.

“ _We killed everyone there, that’s true,”_ Crazy said to Spark, before looking sideways at N.I.C.K, who was still waiting for their decision. “ _But I understand that for some reason you haven’t explained to us you feel **he** was responsible for your pain and all the suffering inside that ship. But we have to be fair, or we won’t be better than the humans who tortured you. The humans shoot first, and never try to understand their enemies. **We** are better than that. We have to be better than that. So let N.I.C.K. tell us his story, let him try to make us understand what is going on. After he does, if you still need to avenge our fallen clan’s mates, we will help you to do it, brother.”_

Behind him, Crunk, Spazz and Scoop nodded smiling at Spark, who finally lowered his blaster.

“Very well,” Spark demanded, looking at N.I.C.K.” Explain yourself!”

* * *

"My real name is Nickolas Gene Carter, and I was born on Earth, a thousand years ago back in 2340,” Nick started explaining, sitting down in the aisle outside the Medical Bay. “Two years **before** the Alliance and the Clan met for the very first time. At least you can’t say that **I** was to blame for the war. In fact, I have always been against it, even as a security unit.”

“My mother,” he stopped, and then looked at A.A.R.O.N, who was still frowning at him. ”Our creator, I should say, was Dr. Jane E. Carter-Spaulding, lead scientist in the field of cloning. I have no idea who else donated his genetic material to form me, but I’m sure it wasn’t just her, since the only thing I had in common with the woman was the color of my hair.”

“Wait,” Crunk interrupted, frowning. Nick was starting to get tired of that particular expression.” You said creator… Do you mean you’re a clone?”

“A very special clone, to be exact,” Nick shook his head. He had never liked to explain that particular part of his past, not even when he lived on Earth and the war was just a concept for him. “Mother was obsessed with immortality but the normal clones, the perfect copies of the original bodies, weren’t enough for her. So she made me, trying to achieve what she called ‘genetic perfection’, which included one of the highest IQ’s ever tested in that particular generation. I finished my regular education when I turned 10, and started working on my first doctorate by the time I was 14. But by then Mother had decided that I was too independent for her tastes, and while she couldn’t destroy me as an unsuccessful attempt since the Alliance already had an interest in my theories, she started working on **other** clones. My younger brothers and sisters.”

“Bobbie Jean, Leslie Barbara, Virginia Marie, Kanden Brent, Taelyn…” Aaron began reciting, and Nick could see the moment in which the safety program hit a problem, because his brother’s voice turned shaky again. Not that Nick could blame him. Remembering his brothers always made him feel like carving out his own heart, even if he didn’t had one anymore. “… And Angel Charisma. My twin. Mother called me… the control subject. She was… she was the guinea pig.”

Nick saw Spark tense, and he guessed than during his time on board of the lab he had heard the expression control subject more than once.

“Mother wasn’t exactly what you would call a loving person,” Nick said, fully aware that it was one of the  biggest understatements of the universe. Although she was hailed in Alliance History as one of the most forward-thinking scientists in history, and almost a savior of mankind thanks to her advances in cloning, the truth was that she was one of the cruelest beings Nick had ever encountered. “And, as I said, she was obsessed. But at first I didn’t notice much, because due to my intelligence, I was being lauded as her greatest achievement and that meant that she treated me much better than everyone else. It wasn’t until after Aaron and Angel were born, and I was working on my second doctorate, this time in robotics, that I noticed that she never called my other brothers her ‘sons’. And it took Bobbie and Leslie’s deaths for me to notice that she was using them as petri dishes for her experiments.”

“Bobbie was one of the very first victims of the so called ‘space disease’,” Nick continued, lowering his eyes. He didn’t want to see looks of horror or pity as he told this particular part of his story. More importantly, he didn’t want to see Aaron’s face. Even if his feelings were now protected and buffered by the safety net program, there was still a chance of leaking. And there was no easy way to explain what had happened. “The sickness that made most of Earth population agree that the ‘Space Cowboys’ had to be destroyed, because the government blamed them for the death of more than 9 million people in four years. But the funny thing was that, while most people took years to die a very painful death, Bobbie was gone in just two months. I never put two and two together then. But when Leslie died of the same thing, in three months time, I just had to confront Mother. She was an accomplished microbiologist, and she was researching a cure for the illness… It wasn’t such a surprise when I found out that she had infected both Bobbie and Leslie, to be able to test possible cures. Only that instead of curing them, she just made them sicker and sicker, until they died.”

* * *

 _“You’re going to explain this to me one more time, very slowly,” Nick Carter had never been a patient man. It probably had more to do with the fact that he was only 16 years old, than with anything else. But even though he was young, he had two doctorates, and everyone around him thought he had all the answers of the universe ever since he had programmed a computer to calculate impossible routes through space. That was why he was not used to not getting an answer when he asked for one. “ **Why** you thought it was a good idea to experiment on Bobbie and Leslie?”_

 _“I’d expected you to understand, Nick. Sacrifices have to be made in order to save mankind,” Jane Carter-Spaulding smiled as she looked at him, her creation. She never acknowledged that he was her son, as, just like with all the others, she didn’t feel any attachment towards him. “It was a pity that they died, but it brought us closer to finding a cure.”_   _  
_

_“They were **your** daughters!” Nick screamed, punching the table where his mother kept samples of her work. “ **MY** sisters! You had no right to use them as guinea pigs!”_ __

_“Oh, for heaven’s sake, you’re almost as melodramatic as Eugene was!” Mrs. Carter turned around, fully intending to ignore his complaints. “They weren’t real, just copies of my own genetic material. I had every right to do with them as I pleased, and if it wasn’t because of **your** usefulness to the Alliance, I would do the same with you!”_   _  
_

_Nick gasped, shocked. He had always known that his mother had no love for him, but he had never imagined how deep her contempt was._ __

_Unfortunately, she was right. Since the girls -and every single one of his brothers - **had** been registered as clones, they didn’t have any rights. Cloning was still a complex legal matter, and although Nick didn’t quite understand the legal situation regarding clones, he knew that as long as the original genetic donor was alive, clones were considered their property. Non-entities. He was only considered a **person** because one of his Mother’s assistants, a man named Robert Eugene, had registered Nick as a person, as Dr. Carter-Spaulding’s son, before she could announce to the world that she had created a super smart clone of herself.  
_

 _And while that protected him, and gave him the chance to get away from her as soon as he turned 21 like any normal human, it still meant that she was the owner of his brothers and sisters. And he couldn’t let them die at her hands._

 _Without trying to argue with her, as he knew she would never see reason, he walked away and went straight to the family quarters. Aaron, Angel, Virginia, Tanden and baby Taelyn were in their room and as he was watching them sleep, he promised that he would never let **her** hurt them as she had hurt Bobbie and Leslie._

* * *

“I couldn’t fulfill my promise.” Nick said sadly, trying hard not to cry. All of his brothers except for Aaron were long gone, and nothing he did or say would change that. “One by one, our Mother took them for new experiments, without anyone stopping her. Virgina was sacrificed to her continuing search for immortality, Tanden to the Alliance’s search for a new supersoldier for the war… and Taelyn to a stupid anti-aging attempt. By the time I turned 18, I only had Angel and Aaron left.”

“But you kept working with the Alliance,” Crunk interjected. There was no mistaking his tone; he was judging Nick’s decisions. Not that Nick blamed him; his decisions had caused a lot of damage.

“I was a fool, I’m not going to debate that,” Nick answered, smiling sadly. “But I had my reasons. I actually thought I could find a way to finish the war, given enough time, and while Mother worked on her clones and biological weaponry, I turned my attention to nano technology and computer programming.”

“End the war, how?” Spark asked, frowning. “By killing every single member of the Clan?”

“You have to understand, they told us you were savages,” Nick answered. While he was sure that it was not what the Clan wanted to hear, he needed to come clean. He needed that, for his own peace of mind. “That the only thing you knew about was war and destruction, and that you had killed all the ambassadors that had tried to negotiate peace with your people.”

“Obviously, that was not the case,” Crazy’s hair was moving fast in every direction possible, and Nick knew that he was telling something to the others. He just hoped it was not a plan to kill him before he could finish his story. “To be honest, that sounds a lot like what your people did to our ambassadors. Kill and torture them, as soon as they refused to ‘join’ the Alliance without question.”

“That does sound like the Alliance’s government, all right,” A.J choose that moment to interrupt, materializing his holographic body covered in complex tattoos next to Nick. “But if you ask me, your ambassadors got out easily. Wait till you hear what the Alliance did to their **own** people.”

“What does A.J mean?” This time, it was Sweet who asked, and Nick wondered what Sweet had discovered in the ten years he had been inside the ship.

“I’m getting there,” Nick lowered his head. “It’s the reason why my name is known through the galaxy, even if no one on Earth knows what happened to me.”

* * *

 _“You said you had results, Dr. Carter,” Dr. Wright, the head of the cybernetic division at the Alliance’s Science Lab, was not a reasonable man. In the three years that Nick had worked for him, he had seen Jhonatan Wright destroy at least five hundred prototypes just because they weren’t 100% perfect. Even a 90% success was not good enough for the man who had singlehandedly created the Clone legislation that Nick hated so much._

 _The **only** reason why he worked under his orders was because he was trying to make the man see that Aaron and Angel weren’t just clones, and thus had to be registered as individuals. He needed that paperwork to get the twins legally away from their Mother before Dr. Carter-Spaulding ended up killing them too. He had managed to get them to live with him, but it was only because she had been busy with the war progress._ __

_“I **said** I was close to getting the desired result, Dr. Wright,” Nick answered, trying to reign in his temper. At 18, he was twice as hotheaded as he had been at 16. That could happen when you managed to accidentally create synthetic life right out of your fourth PhD. “You can’t expect a machine to create something as complex as the human brain without a blueprint. And I have to remind you, no matter how far advanced cloning technology is, the truth is we still don’t know exactly how our brains work.”_ __

_“Are you aware that we’re at war, Dr. Carter? Every single time you fail, thousands of human lives are lost.”_

 _“Thousand of brainless clones, you mean,” Nick countered. The soldiers that the Alliance was sending to the frontline were clones, but they were as far from him and the twins as a toaster was from a supercomputer. Unlike Nick and his siblings, who could think and act on their own, the soldier-clones were just flesh shells. They lacked a brain, and were actually remote controlled by soldiers in the planet. One single human soldier commanded thousands of clones. No matter what Wright claimed, once war had been declared, no human life had been lost to the Space Cowboys._ __

_“Thousands of human resources,” Dr. Wright answered. “We need to make this war cost-effective.”_ __

_“Oh, I can do that with my current results,” Nick said, sarcastically. “Just declare peace and leave the savages alone. **That** would be cost effective.”_ __

_Dr. Wright glared at him, but Nick didn’t back down. There was no way they could fire him anyway, the whole department depended on Nick and his research._

 _He was untouchable._

 _“The nano units must be ready for a test next week Dr. Carter,” Dr. Wright growled. “Or you can kiss your grant goodbye, and you and your servant clones **will** return to Dr. Carter-Spaulding’s quarters.”_

 _With that, the doctor turned around, not waiting for Nick’s answer. And that made his threat even more effective, since the man had managed to scare Nick with the only thing that mattered to him._

 _Which meant that he had to fix the problem with the nanos soon, just to keep his brother and sister safe. The nanos were perfectly functional, and he had even managed to program them to self-replicate at an incredible speed. In fact, the real issue was that they reproduced too fast, and he was too slow. He could program one to make a femur, but by the time he finished the next program to create a rib, he would have either a six foot tall femur or 6,000 normal sized femurs. It wasn’t working.  
_

 _However, if he gave them something to copy, like, say, a human hand, they worked perfectly. They would destroy and replace the original in doing so, which wasn’t what Nick wanted, and was both the real problem he had hit early on, and why he didn’t want to hand his research to Wright just yet._ __

_Sure, in theory, it would work regardless.  
_

 _In theory, they could inject a clone, before a personality or a control module was installed, with a couple of carefully programmed nanos and after a very complex conversion the end result **would** be an anthropomorphic robot with nano-induced abilities, like the capacity to self-reproduce **without** needing a second human clone._

 _And, since they had no brains, they weren’t alive and thus, if Nick’s theory was correct, the only loss would be a few organic raw materials._

 _Very **cost-effective** , as Dr. Wright would say._

 _Convinced, Nick decided to call the cloning department. He needed a few samples._ __

* * *

“Unfortunately, my theory worked all too well,” Nick finished, passing his hand through his hair. It felt soft, and somewhat warm. Remembering those days wasn’t easy, especially now that thanks to his own nano-organic brain he remembered **everything** he had said and thought back in the day. And now he knew that no clone was truly brainless, even if the “prime” personality had been installed, they felt, thought, **and** suffered like any other humans. He also knew that, no matter if the nano-conversion procedure was swift, getting every single cell of your body replaced with a microscopic self-replicating machine hurt like hell. **Even** after programming a safety program that closed nerve endings first. “And at first, the military was happy with just converting clones and sending them to battle with the same remote control that they used with the normal clones. And I was free to work on my personal projects which was finding a use for nano technology in medicine.”

“So that was how **I** was created?” B.R.O.C.K asked hesitantly. “Am I the modified clone of some anonymous soldier?”

Nick flinched. That was a can of worms he would’ve preferred to leave unopened, but he **had** promised to explain everything and tell the whole truth.

“Not exactly,” he finally said when he had managed to gather his courage. “You were part of a **different** experiment. One I didn’t know was going on until it was too late to stop it.”

“You just said it was **your** experiments that created the nano-units, that it was your research and your idea,” Crazy interrupted.

And while it was an excellent point, it irritated Nick, because it wasn’t the first time he’d heard it and just like the last time, it was an accusation. They were judging him and while 980 years ago he had felt insulted, now he admitted they were right.

He had been guilty of many things back then.

* * *

“We are going to talk, whether you like it or not, genius boy.”

Alexander James was not at all like Nick had imagined. The leader of one of the many Earth based Rebel cells was infamous at the Alliance Labs since he was the mastermind behind the destruction of many experiments and laboratories around the planet. There was also the fact that he had never been caught on video, which made his existence somewhat of a legend among the scientist.

Nick had the personal theory that that there was no real Alexander James. That it was just a name created by the Rebels to make people think that their leaders were unstoppable. Of course, now that he had found himself kidnapped by the Rebellion, and had been taken to see Alexander, he knew better.

“I have nothing to say to a murderer!” He answered defiantly. It wasn’t hard, since Alexander wasn’t imposing.

He was almost a head shorter than Nick, and wasn’t exactly muscular. Also, he didn’t have any weapons at hand, and he was dressed in very old and dirty clothes. In short, he looked like a bum, not a fearsome warrior, so Nick wasn’t worried for his safety.

“ **I’m** a murderer? That’s rich coming from the head executioner for the Alliance government,” Alexander laughed, but there was no happiness in his voice. “Tell me, great Dr. Carter, how many humans have you killed and turned into unfeeling machines this week?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you forgot your greatest achievement?” Alexander walked right next to Nick, making the young scientist step back. It was disconcerting, because now Nick felt fear. And the other man sounded so sure of what he was saying. “The nano-conversion procedure that makes all criminal and unrepentant criminals into obedient machines that will work for the Alliance’s goals without any complain?”

“The nano-conversion procedure is not used in real human people,” Nick protested immediately. “We’re only using it on brainless clones made out of volunteer cells. What are you talking about?”

“You cannot be that stupid,” Alexander laughed, lowering his head. “Do you even **watch** the news? They’ve been broadcasting the procedure to make people know that they’re being serious about the nano-conversion sentences!”

Nick wanted to deny that again, but then he stopped to think about it for a moment. Although his research was only used in brainless clones, the one time he **had** tried it on a fully functional one, as part of his continuous research to cure mental diseases; the nanos had completely destroyed the personality, turning the clone into a programmable unit. Nick had been so horrified by the implications of that, that he had decided to stop that particular line of experiments until he could ensure that the personality of the patient would be protected. But Dr. Wright and his own Mother weren’t that ethical.

It was possible that they would take Nick’s research and use it the way Alexander had described it.

“Show me,” Nick asked, trying to keep an open mind. It wasn’t that he believed the words of the Rebel, but a new idea had come to him. Of course, his research was **not** being used in humans and if he could show Alexander that the Rebellion was lying, then he could maybe convince their leader to destroy the Rebellion from the inside.

It sounded like a great plan.

* * *

“Of course, Alexander was right, and I was an idiot,” Nick laughed, depreciatively. “It was the first time in my life I had been wrong.”

“The first time in your life someone pointed out you were wrong,” A.J interrupted, which really didn’t surprise Nick. After all, they had gotten to the part of the story that **he** knew perfectly well. If, as with Nick, **all** his personality had survived, Nick could expect many interruptions and footnotes while he tried to tell his story. “Because as **I** told you back then, you were wrong more often than not.”

“You knew Nick back then?” Sweet asked the hologram directly. “Or… Are you like him? A human that was turned into a computer?”

“Not exactly like him, but yeah… that’s the basic idea,” A.J nodded, taking off his glasses. “I was Alexander James, and I was the one who pulled Nick’s head off his ass and showed him what **his** research was **really** doing.”

“So… your name was Alexander James, and your computer name is A.J, and **his** name was Nick, and his unit designation was N.I.C.K and no one ever noticed who you really were?” Crazy frowned. And yes, Nick had to admit that **that** particular fit of juvenile humor had been sort of stupid when he had originally thought of it. Not that **anyone** had noticed.

“It was my idea of a joke,” Nick explained. “But that was much later. I can tell you, I **never** planned Alexander, myself or **anyone** else to be nano-converted. That was a last-minute thing to try and save anyone else from getting executed.”

“So yes, despite **everything** , Dr. Carter **did** try to keep the Rebellion going,” A.J said. “It’s easy to blame him for a lot of stuff, but when he joined us, he tried to make up for everything and while we weren’t able to end the war, at least…. Well, we gave you a fighting chance.”

“ **That** I find hard to believe,” Crunk said, obviously angry. “As far as I understand, **you** created something that made your army infinite. We’ve seen you create drones one after the other, as if it was nothing. So we can **never** win!”

“But at least they can’t convert you,” Nick pointed out. “My original nanos could convert **everything** in their path.”

It was funny to see the reaction of the Clan to that particular bit of news. Spark, in particular, looked as if he was going to throw up.

“That’s not true!” He finally screamed, pointing at the shiny cornrows on his head. Nick knew exactly what those were. He just didn’t know **how** to tell Spark that. “The scientist who did this to me were **trying** to use nanos on the Clan. They killed **everyone** trying to do it, and I was the closest they got to succeeding, and I’m not a machine!”

Nick smiled sadly. There was no easy way to answer those accusations, so he decided to just try and explain. If he was lucky, the others would understand and restrain Spark from doing too much damage. If he wasn’t… well, now was as good time as ever to see how sturdy a nano-being really was.

“That’s because before my… falling out with Dr. Wright, I modified the research to make the nanos keyed to human’s DNA, and… well, other interesting side effects that cause nanos start self destroying after the 100th generation. If I hadn’t done that last part, you would’ve never managed to destroy even one of our battle drones since they would self-repair themselves immediately. And since only **I** knew the code I used to reprogram that first generation, and they never knew how to make a new batch, only I can fix that little quirk.”

“Why would you do that?” Crunk demanded, obviously not trusting him. “If you had so much control over those things, why not make them destroy themselves immediately? Or not be able to convert anything? Why the hell did you convert yourself, your ally and your brother into a machine?!”

“It wasn’t exactly by choice, you know?” Nick shook his head, angrily. “Trust me when I tell you, I would’ve preferred to stay fully human, not having to experiment on my loved ones, and end the war somewhen last century. But I had to work with the hand I was dealt, and if I can live with it, so can you.”

“Let him explain,” Crazy interjected in his favor. “So far, his story has made some sense. I’m willing to bet the rest of it is equally interesting.”

The others nodded and, although Spark didn’t seem as convinced, he motioned at Nick to keep talking. Nick found it funny, since it wasn’t as if he needed permission from the alien to do anything. But on the other hand, Spark reminded him of himself at that apparent age. Equally sure that he had all the answers.

“Alexander… AJ showed me what Dr. Wright and my Mother had done with my creations.” Nick recalled, and the image was clear in his mind. “How they had decided to go ahead with the last part of my project, and injected nanos straight into prisoners of war, turning them into computers easy to re-program. Thankfully, the generation that they had used didn’t have the full capacities of the nanos I was working on, so those nano-units were mostly useless for the war effort. Their only utility was to be used as cannon fodder, without being able to create weapons from their own bodies or even self-repair after a certain limit to the damage  was sustained. But even so, they weren’t clones, they were human beings, who had lives **Before** they had been nano converted… and everything they were, their personalities, their memories, their very essence, was erased by my creations.”

“But… you and Aaron… and I guess Brock and AJ… you all have your old memories,” Scoop interrupted again. “I mean, you all have emotions…”

“Yes, I can feel your life sparks… they don’t seem muted, or artificial,” Spazz added helpfully.

“I don’t have any memory from the time before my activation,” B.R.O.C.K said, breaking his silence for the first time since Nick started to explain. It wasn’t an accusation, it hadn’t been said in anger, but even so, it made Nick feel like trash. “I’m not sure if that means that I am different from N.I…. No, from Dr. Carter, Mr. Alexander, and Dr. Carter’s brother.”

Nick couldn’t help but notice that B.R.O.C.K was making a clear difference between them. He would never be just N.I.C.K, the Nano Intelligent Charge and attacK system who had been activated the same year, again. Only Dr. Carter, who, thanks to the stupid program that Dr. Wright and Dr. Carter-Spaulding had written, had to be respected and followed by all nano-units at all times.

“B.R.O.C.K is different,” Nick confirmed. “Just not as different as he thinks.”

* * *

“Nick, this is Brian, Brian, this is the infamous Dr. Carter. I know, I know, he doesn’t look like much, but he seems to be somewhat smart.”

After the trip to the execution row, Nick had thrown up. But after that, he had been more than happy to join the Rebellion. He had even insisted on tattooing himself, ready to show everyone that he was not part of the inhuman experiments of the Alliance government. Alexander had stopped him from doing it, because, as he explained it, the good Dr. was far more valuable as an inside spy. A tattoo would make secrecy impossible.

“I was imagining someone a bit shorter,” Brian admitted. He was a head shorter than Nick, and had strawberry blond hair, which together with his piercing blue eyes and his honest, open smile, made Brian look as if he had just stepped out from some ancient history book, from before the Alliance time, when Earth was divided in countries. In fact, if Nick pressed his memory a little, he could even pinpoint the exact era. Brian looked like a rock’n roll singer, and was only missing a letterman jacket and maybe a short, blonde girl with a pigtail and a cheerleader uniform glued to his arm. “Maybe crazier-looking.”

“What was your last name again?” Nick asked, trying not to feel insulted. The truth was that he still wasn’t used to people NOT acting as if he was the best human being in the universe. And since **his** family was one of the most important in the planet, he figured he could use that as leverage to show the other man that he was still the superior one.

“We don’t use last names here,” Brian told him, still smiling. The worst part was that Nick had to admit that it was a very contagious smile. It made *him* want to smile. “They just help the Alliance to try and stop us through our families.”

Nick opened his mouth to complain, but then remembered how he had ended up creating the nano-procedure just because Dr. Wright had threatened Aaron and Angel. It made sense, except for one thing.

“Wait… what about Alexander? Everyone knows his full name is Alexander James?”

“James is not my last name, it’s just my second name. Mom had a thing for those so… well, you know, I got stuck with it,” Alexander laughed. “Trust me, no one will ever find my family and use them as bargaining chip against me.”

“It also helps that half his family is in the Rebellion,” Brian added, helpfully. “You’ll see, Nick… most of the Rebellion members have their families here. You could say that Peace in the Universe is some sort of family tradition.”

“Don’t go so fast, B-Rock, let him get used to our methods before you invite him to the December Family Bash,” a third voice joined them, and Nick turned around to see a very tall man, with black short hair, with dark glasses that hid his eyes, and wearing the Alliance Space Force uniform.

That was how Dr. Nick Carter met Space Captain Kevin Richardson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah, sorry. 2011 was not a good year for posting (or writing) fic, since I finished this around December last year, sent it to beta in April and then... just couldn't post it for one reason or another. Promise, the next chapter won't take as long in being posted.  
> THat said, if you're still reading after all the delays, please let me know... I just want to know if people are still reading (not that I won't post the rest if I don't get any answers... it's just curiosity on my part)


	11. Family Secrets are revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick finishes telling his story, and now it's time to reveal a few truths about Captain Kevin

Nick and the Clan had decided to move to the mess hall. Captain Kevin was still unconscious, but Sweet had checked up on him and had declared that his body was now getting some much needed rest, and was mostly out of danger.

“Joining the Rebellion was the best decision I could make in my whole life,” Nick continued once they were sitting more comfortably. “Sure, no one treated me like royalty, and in fact, everyone seemed to think I was an idiot… but it was the only time when I had some sort of normal life.”

“And this people you met, Alexander, Brian and Captain Kevin… they are in fact A.J, B.R.O.C.K and that other Captain?” Crazy asked, frowning.

“That can’t be,” Sweet shook his head. “You said this happened almost a thousand years ago and while I understand that you, A.J and B.R.O.C.K are not organic, I operated the Captain. He is not a thousand years old, and he’s completely human.”

To Nick’s dismay, B.R.O.C.K was still silent. And he hadn’t gotten to the hardest part of his story.

“Captain Kevin is human,” A.J confirmed. “And he wasn’t there that day, at least not **this** him. But let Nick finish. I’m sure everything will be clearer when he does.”

 

* * *

 

When Nick joined the Rebellion, he had originally thought that he would run away from the lab and go to live with Brian, Alexander and thousands of other rebels underneath the city of New Florida. However, Alexander dispelled that idea pretty quickly. The idea was to have Nick work from the inside, destroying as much as he could of the Alliance’s research in order to stop the war.

Alexander was to be his contact, and he even helped him to free ‘samples’, rebels that had been captured by the military and sent to Dr. Wright’s lab for conversion. For three months, everything worked perfectly, as no one ever suspected the janitor at Carter’s lab, and Nick had the ever growing excuse that programming a human replicator was not easy, even for the smartest man on Earth. How the most infamous rebel on earth managed to remain unnoticed was something that Nick never could understand.

He rarely saw Kevin, Brian’s cousin, and yet another inside man for the Rebellion, who, unlike Nick, hadn’t had to be shown the evils of the Alliance. He worked mostly as a recruiter, looking for any soldier who would have doubts about the war and why they were fighting. The one reason why Nick didn’t quite feel comfortable around him was because Captain Richardson was a huge detractor of the cloning laws. While he accepted that clones were people and thus deserved human rights, he also insisted that cloning itself should be banned as it was unethical. It was an argument as old as cloning -some researchers said it was even older than cloning- but Captain Richardson always seemed to convince more people to his side every time he spoke and he made Nick feel as if he had no right to even exist.

Brian, on the other hand, tried to keep in contact with him, as if he understood that sometimes, Nick felt lonely. Although he didn’t had a real excuse to go to the nano-units labs -and, Nick was ashamed to admit, he had no idea what Brian did for a living- he managed to come up every time Nick felt work was only making things worse. Sometimes, he was the pizza delivery boy, some others, a courier for the Alliance, and one memorable time, one of Dr. Wright’s temporal assistants.

Nick never did found out why Alexander sometimes called Brian B-Rock, but then, Nick soon found that Alexander liked to give everyone nicknames. Which of course explained why Alexander only refered to him as “Genius boy” and, later when he had had the chance to meet Aaron, the younger boy had become “Air boy”.

For six months, it gave Nick the illusion that a normal life was possible, once he managed to get his brother and sister away from their Mother.

Until Angel died.

Nick never quite understood how that happened. The official story leaked to the press had been that Angel Carter had been killed by the ruthless rebellion in an attempt to stop the heroic Dr. Jane Carter-Spaulding’s advances in cloning technology, by destroying her main lab. But Nick **knew** that Alexander hadn’t organized such attack, and that even if **he** had done it, Angel had no reason to be at the Cloning lab for **anything**. Their mother had stopped experimenting on the twins after Tanden’s death, and thus, there was no reason for her to have just Angel with her.

Aaron had been too shell shocked to give any explanation, which on itself gave Nick all the information he needed. His younger brother must have been a witness to whatever that really killed Angel, and Nick was willing to bet that it had been one of her mother’s constant attempts to immortality.

And then, Aaron fell ill.

If Nick needed any confirmation that his mother had something to do with Angel’s death, Aaron’s illness was it. Because it was not the same ‘skin disease’ that had made humans rally against the Space Cowboys, or even one of the old hellish epidemics of the 21st century, but a completely new bug, that was shutting down every organ in Aaron’s body, slowly and painfully.

“I am going to be next,” Nick said to Brian next time they saw each other in the lab. He wasn’t sure what Brian was doing in there that day, as he wasn’t wearing an identifiable uniform. “Mother will decide to ignore the Alliance’s orders and start experimenting on me any day now. As soon as Aaron… as Aaron is no longer useful to her.”

“Can’t you clone him or something?” Brian asked, handing him a petri dish where a bunch of nano machines were destroying and rebuilding themselves. It was Nick’s latest project, a virus that would render the nano-units useless for combat forever. “I know that my cousin isn’t fond of it, but in this case… isn’t it for the better? Give him a completely healthy body **and** register him as yours, so your Mother can’t touch him.”

“As long as Aaron has the same genetic material as she does, I can’t do anything without her permission. And she’s never going to let me clone him just as he is. She’ll want to make ‘improvements’ to him and I’ll lose my little brother,” Nick moaned, putting a small scrap of metal in the dish. Thankfully, the nanos ignored the new material, which meant he had managed to curb their first function of converting **everything** on reach. “That is why I started working with nanos in the first place, you know?”

“Aaron wasn’t sick back then.” And that was another thing that Nick liked about Brian. He never had to explain things to him, as it seemed that he understood it perfectly. No, not it. Him. Brian was the first person in the **world** that understood Nick.

“Oh, but I knew that she was going to kill him sooner or later,” Nick sighed, trying not to look at Brian. He hated when he got sentimental in front of the other man. He felt it made him seem weak. “So I was looking for something, **anything** , that could help me get my brothers and sisters’ out of her shadow. Nanos seemed like a great idea. Replace all his organic matter and genetic information with non-organic matter, so by law, he wouldn’t be her clone anymore. Pity it didn’t work.”

“Well, yeah,” Brian agreed, pocking the dish with a small plastic stick. Apparently, the nanos decided that it was far tastier than the metal, as they swarmed over it so quickly that Brian barely had time to drop the stick. “You want your brother, not a brainless drone. It’s a pity you can’t download his brain into a computer while the nanos do the body conversion, and then stick the information into the brain when it’s done.”

 

* * *

 

“Brian idea was genius. I had never thought of it, even if it was the easiest solution in the universe. So I started working on that, the next time I went to see Aaron, I managed to get a copy of his whole personality and memories into a special container. I wasn’t sure about how I could work into a perfect nano-organic copy of him, but I also got some genetic material.”

“So… that’s how I was created?” A.A.R.O.N asked, sounding somewhat dejected. “I am just a replacement for your brother?”

“No!” Nick shook his head vehemently. Even if no one else believed his words, he **needed** A.A.R.O.N to understand. Everything that had happened had been because Nick had been adamant on saving his baby brother. And he had succeeded, because the only differences between A.A.R.O.N and Aaron were due to the safety net program. Once that was out of the way, it would’ve just as if his brother had taken a 900 year nap. “Yes, your body is nano-organic and not your original one, but your memories and personality are the same.”

“But I don’t remember any of this,” A.A.R.O.N frowned again. “Until I woke up after the electrical overload, I didn’t remember I had been organic, or that I had a family, or that you were my brother.”

“That was Brian’s idea,” Nick said, trying not to look in B.R.O.C.K’s direction. “By protecting the main personality and brain of a person while the nanos converted the body into nano-organic matter, we solved the problem of the brainless nano-units. However, Brian had the theory that the shock of the conversion would still destroy the human personality and leave the body empty again. So he and I created a special buffer program, one who would create a temporal A.I that would filter the human memories a little bit at a time, reconfiguring emotions, memories, and personality gradually, to help the human mind to adjust to its new reality as a nano-organic being.”

“That would be why when we met you, you acted completely like a machine,” Crazy asked, making Nick smile. Apparently, he **was** being clear enough for someone without experience in nano-technology to understand. “It was the buffer program, right? But Aaron has always had the ability to feel emotions, that’s what he told us. The only machine-like things on him are the strange spiders under his skin and the fact that he speaks about systems and files and not memories and feelings.”

“Aaron’s safety program was a little different,” Nick explained. “I was still perfecting the original buffer program when his illness took a turn for the worst. There was no time to act, and I was afraid that if I acted before the program was ready, I would lose Aaron completely. So I kept his memories and personality safe until I was completely sure that it would work perfectly. It took me just almost a century to manage it.”

“So that’s why all your latest drones were different? You were experimenting?” A.J wondered out loud, and Nick glared at him. He finally realized that yes, A.J sounded exactly like Alexander. If he **hadn’t** been muffled by his own safety program, he would’ve noticed far earlier. He did want to hear that story, but first he needed to finish his own.

“Sort of, although I didn’t had real personalities to install in them,” Nick answered. “And of course, I already knew what would happen if I wasn’t careful with the programming.”

“Because of me?” B.R.O.C.K asked and once again, Nick couldn’t help but think that there was real emotion behind his voice. Maybe it was true, or maybe he had been projecting his own needs. One thing was certain, he had opened a lot more wounds than just Aaron’s first death. Remembering his friendship with Brian wasn’t easy, especially as B.R.O.C.K was not exactly Brian… and probably never would be.

“Yes,” Nick finally answered. “You… I hate to say this, but I never thought I would have to use my research on anyone except Aaron. So, when the time came to actually do something for someone who wasn’t blood related to me, I made a huge mistake.”

 

* * *

 

Nick never found out how Brian was captured. He had known that Brian took Kevin’s wife place in an attack against Dr. Wright’s lab, but he wasn’t sure how the Alliance had managed to find out about the attack or why they had **captured** Brian instead of killing him outright. Not that he wanted his friend dead, but it was better than the fate for the war prisoners.

At least if he had died, he wouldn’t be used as a guinea pig.

He tried to keep calm. He knew that Alexander **had** saved more than one Rebel from jail, and that Brian was an important member of their organization, so there was no question that Brian would be rescued.

Those hopes were dashed one morning when, as he was still working on the program to keep Aaron’s memories safe, Dr. Wright and a dozen of soldiers came into his lab with four prisoners. One of them was Brian, and it took all of Nick’s strength of will not to yell his friend’s name. Alexander had once drilled him about the possibility of an ally coming as a prisoner to his lab, and while Nick had been sure it would never happen, he still paid attention.

“Dr. Wright, have we finally ran out of space in our cells?” He asked, trying to keep his voice neutral and bored. “Because I have always told you, my lab is not a viable alternative. I do need my own space.”

“Your sarcasm is not appreciated, Dr. Carter,” Dr. Wright didn’t even glare, which was a bad sign. It meant that Dr. Wright believed he had the upper hand, and that was never good. “We’ve got our orders. Your advance in nano-technology hasn’t been fast enough for our superiors, so they decided that the problem is the raw material we’ve been providing you with.”

“And of course, there’s someone who knows **more** than I do about nano-technology?” Nick raised an eyebrow, trying to go for his old arrogance. It was a hard task, as his time with Alexander, Brian, and even Captain Richardson had taught him a lot about friendship, teamwork and the fact that he was not the smartest man on earth. “I mean, it’s not as if I **invented** the whole thing.”

“Sometimes, we get the best ideas from people who are not limited by our own making,” Dr. Wright repeated, as the soldiers busied themselves by putting the prisoners in position. “Even **you** have to admit that you have been stuck in a rut for the past two years. Maybe **this** will get your creativity flowing.”

“And what is **this** supposed to be?” Nick walked towards the prisoners. He didn’t recognize the other three, so he stepped in front of Brian, his friend. “They don’t look particularly extraordinary.”

“They’re traitors,” Dr. Wright explained, as if Nick was very slow. “Which means they have no rights and thus the Alliance may use them as we need. So start with that one, and find a way to make your nanos more effective.”

“No,” Nick answered immediately, and with absolute certainly. Obviously it was not what he was expected to say, as Dr. Wright, the Soldiers *and* Brian frowned. Trying to hide his mistake, he continued. “I will not experiment in non-cloned humans. The 2289 act forbids it.”

“I don’t need your pity,” Brian said, his voice cold as ice. He was the better actor, as there was no hint that he knew Nick. And, to punctuate his words, the shorter man spit on Nick’s face. “I rather die before getting any kindness!”

Nick didn’t clean his face, trying to keep his emotions in check, as well as to save Brian **somehow**.

“Tag him as our control subject,” Nick ordered to one of his assistants. “Let’s see how he likes seeing everyone else suffer **because** of him.”

“Glad to see you’re seeing reason, Dr. Carter,” Dr. Wright approved. “You have to understand, there’s a war raging. Sometimes, exceptions have to be made. And in this case, you can’t consider these traitors as humans. They’re even less than clones.”

Nick didn’t answer. Instead, he watched silently as his assistants tagged all the prisoners, who wore movement inhibitors around their necks. They would be sent to special cells within the same laboratory, and treated just like the clones that had already died or being nano-converted before them. When it came to Brian’s turn, Nick looked away. He needed to contact Alexander, or maybe Captain Richardson. One of them would know what to do, how to free Brian.

Nick knew that he could, in theory, destroy the lab, save Brian and fake his own death. But Aaron was still alive, and Nick couldn’t bring himself to abandon him.

 

* * *

 

“I should’ve realized that it was a test,” Nick continued, sighing. “I still don’t know how, but my Mother and Dr. Wright suspected I had joined the Rebellion. But they didn’t have any evidence, so they had to prove that I was a traitor in order to be able to re-posses my research and force me to do whatever they wanted.”

“So you tried to free this Brian?” Crunk asked. “But then… you said that the Alliance doesn’t have your research. How can that be?”

“ **I** told him we couldn’t free Brian,” A.J interrupted. He shoot an apologizing glance to B.R.O.C.K but, to Nick’s dismay, there was no emotion in the maintenance unit. Now that he had forced himself to remember every detail of Brian’s face, smile and personality, he had to admit that B.R.O.C.K came a little short. And that was **his** fault. He hadn’t been fast enough to save Brian completely. “Back then, I thought it was an acceptable sacrifice for the greater good.”

“That doesn’t seem too different from what your Alliance does now,” Crazy said, crossing his arms. His braids were swishing all over the place, making Nick realize that he was talking to the others while he was listening to his story. Probably discussing what they were learning, and while part of him was completely offended by that second conversation he wasn’t part off, the more rational part of him understood that they were doing it that way as to not to interrupt him or A.J too much.

“Yes, I see that now, but well, what could I do? I was **only** human,” A.J shrugged, making Nick frown. At first he had thought that A.J was just an excellent artificial copy of Alexander’s brain patterns, but now he was starting to see more and more mannerisms of the old Rebel leader, he suspected it was not the case. He really couldn’t wait to hear that explanation, as soon as he finished his own. “Besides, I changed my mind right after Nick here told me I was an idiot.”

“And that was how you were captured?” Nick asked, curious. He had never quite learned **how** the infamous Alexander James had been finally ‘brought to justice’. Mostly because by then, Nick didn’t had much time left himself as an organic being.

“Me and Captain Richardson,” A.J laughed, without humor. “We tried to launch a very stupid rescue mission together. Get Brian and you out of the labs, destroy the nano-research, and of course, kill your Mother. It didn’t quite work as we planned.”

“But you keep saying that Captain Kevin is not the same Captain Richardson,” Spazz interrupted again. By this time, his hair was practically tied up in weird knots.

“Because he’s not. Let Nick finish his story, then I’ll fill in the holes, ok?”

 

* * *

 

The news of Alexander James’s capture didn’t reach Nick until three days later when Dr. Wright came to his laboratory to gloat. Ever since the Alliance had ordered Nick to start working on non human clones, the man had become more and more powerful in the Science Division, and apparently, he had managed to get permission to work on Alexander’s punishment by himself.

“He’ll be the most useful tool for the Alliance yet,” Dr. Wright said, after regaling Nick with tales of Alexander’s far too quick trial. “By the time I’m done with him, his only thoughts will be of helping Earth to win the war.”

“So you will turn him into a mindless drone too?” Nick drawled, trying to sound bored, or at least uninterested. Anything that wouldn’t give up the fact that inside he was dying. Aaron had just a couple of days left by his own calculations, he couldn’t protect Brian for longer, and now, Alexander, his first real friend, was also going to be executed. Life was simply not fair. “Seems like a waste of intellect.”

“Oh? So you think Alexander James is an intelligent man?”

“I’m just saying,” Nick started very carefully, remembering every lesson Captain Richardson had given him about working undercover and keeping his cover intact. “That if he managed to lead the Rebellion successfully for so many years, he must be at least a good tactician. Better than the ones working in our Military Branch. Seems to me it’s a waste of resources to simply destroy those abilities.”

To his surprise, instead of looking offended, Dr. Wright started to laugh.

“That’s exactly what I was telling Dr. Carter-Spaulding last night, and I’m glad you agree boy. It’s going to make everything easier here.”

“I’m not sure I’m following you,” Nick said, more worried than confused. He had a nagging feeling that he knew where this things were going, and he had no idea what to do to stop them.

“It struck me as odd, my dear Dr, that there has been little or no advancement in the nano field for the last three years, when before, you were making such leaps that it was hard to follow. Now? One would even think that you’re going **backwards**.”

“You know perfectly well that technology advances don’t always go in a straight progression. I’ve just been careful not to cause any mistakes that would cost a victory to our troops,” Nick answered, trying to look for any exit in case he needed to flee. Unfortunately, there was none.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Dr. Wright started walking around the table next to where the prisoners were standing, paralyzed by the movement inhibitors. Nick had managed to keep the experiments in just one of the four, but he had known that he wouldn’t be able to stall for time much longer. Now, he realized he had less time than what he expected. “However, I can’t help but think that those first generation nanos you had were the answer to our current problem. Sure, they destroyed the brain, but… One doesn’t really need to keep the brain of a traitor, does one?”

Before Nick could react, Dr. Wright pulled out a syringe from his coat pocket. Its contents were shiny silver, and Nick swallowed. It had to be nanos in there, and now he had to wonder **how** Dr. Wright had gotten a hold of those.

“What are you doing?” He asked, no longer caring that his worry was probably easy to hear in his voice.

“It didn’t escape my attention that you didn’t want **anything** to happen to this particular rebel, Dr. Carter,” Dr. Wright explained, standing next to Brian. The man was grinning manically and for the first time, Nick wondered if his so called superior wasn’t a little unhinged. “One might even say that you’re invested in his well being. Almost as if he were your friend.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Nick stepped forward. He needed to get Dr. Wright away from Brian fast. “You’re the first one to remind me that clones can’t have friends. And even if I could have one, it wouldn’t be a Rebel traitor.”

It turned out that it was exactly the wrong thing to say. Dr. Wright turned red with anger, and started gesturing with the hand that had the syringe.

“Stupid?! That’s what you think of me, don’t you, genetic freak?! Always looking down on me, always acting as if you were superior when in truth you’re nothing more than a whim that Jane had one day. Always thinking that no one was fit to lick the soles of your feet! And you **really** thought we didn’t notice when you started actually talking to people? Treating them as if **they** were worthy of your time, instead of us? You **really** were as naive as to think no one checked the security cameras for this lab? That **no** **one** would notice that you had a very constant visitor in the last few months?”

Maybe to bring the point home, or maybe just to appeal to his own sense of theatricality, Dr. Wright brought the needle down, straight into Brian’s chest, and before Nick could act, he plunged its contents into the other man’s body.

Brian couldn’t move due to the inhibitor on his neck, but his eyes opened wide, looking straight at Nick, as if he was begging him not to say anything. He was as good as dead, both of them knew that the nano conversion process lasted around 24 hours and was impossible to stop.

“Are you insane?” Nick yelled at Dr. Wright, furious. He didn’t care about his cover, he didn’t care about his own life. He just wanted to jump across the room and kill the other man with his bare hands. “You have no idea what you’ve just done! Introducing nanos into a human being just like that…”

“Will make him a brainless drone, ready to be programmed for the Alliance’s needs,” Dr. Wright smiled, walking right into Nick’s personal space, as if he was sure Nick couldn’t do anything to hurt him. “That **is** what you’ve been working on this past month, haven’t you? That is what the nanos in your lab do? Because if they don’t… I think you have less than… what? 12 hours to fix it so your friend won’t die a painful and useless death.”

Nick didn’t answer, he didn’t think. He just punched the grinning man on the face, letting all his anger show. The man’s nose made a very satisfying noise as it cracked, making Nick feel somewhat satisfied. Even if now his cover was completely blown.

“You have no idea what you have done,” he growled. And then, because he just couldn’t let Brian’s death go unpunished, he grabbed another syringe and plunged it straight into Dr. Wright’s heart. They weren’t first generation nanos, they were the very last ones he had created, nanos programmed just to eat matter and then self destruct. Even if there were clones of the man stored up -and Nick was sure that someone like Dr. Wright had one or two clones stored up safely somewhere- at least Nick had the satisfaction of killing the original. “But I hope that at least I can give you a small taste of the pain you’ve caused to so many people in **this** planet and the rest of the universe.”

By the time the nanos had finished with Dr. Wright, Nick had already managed to program something that might, if he was lucky, help Brian. He had no idea of what generation of nanos the other man had used to execute his friend, but there was one small chance he still could save him.

“I’m not going to let you die, Brock,” Nick said, feverishly, as he typed the final touches on the program. “You’re my best friend, and there’s no way I’m going to lose you.”

Brian only watched him. Although Nick had disabled the movement inhibitor as soon as he had left Dr. Wright to die, the pain of the nano-conversion process was too much for him.

“Please, don’t hate me,” Nick whispered, almost touching Brian’s forehead as he spoke. He had a new srynge, this time with the latest generation of true nanos, his **true** research, not the one that Dr. Wright and his mother had foolishly assumed was the right one. “But this is the only way.”

With that he injected Brian, watching in silence as the new nanos started to override the old ones, and his friend lost his last human cells.

 

* * *

 

“What I did was to create three subprograms,” Nick explained, as he blinked away tears. He might be completely nano organic now, but as his feelings and emotions returned, he couldn’t help but feel his metaphorical heart ache again. “One that downloaded every bit of Brian’s memories and personalities into a thrice protected subfolder…”

“The one that it’s in my files, that I have no authorization to open,” B.R.O.C.K concluded, and there still was no emotion in his voice. That was killing Nick.

“Yes, that one. I figured I could help you open it when it was time,” Nick nodded. “The second one was a safety net program, like the one Aaron had, to protect the human memories from the conversion process shock, and the third was a special ‘dummy program’, designed to fool the Alliance into thinking that Bri… no, B.R.O.C.K was a blank slate in which they could write whatever they wanted.”

“But then how come he’s not completely a slave for the Alliance?” Sweet asked. His hair was braiding itself around Crunk’s, as if Nick’s story had made him feel the need for some comfort. “I thought you said all nanos were programmed to serve without question.”

“That’s the safety net program’s second function. When he was completely converted, B.R.O.C.K **was** for a while a perfectly functioning maintenance unit that worked exactly as the Alliance wanted,” Nick answered. “But as time passed, the safety program started to erase and override those functions and re-wrote them with Brian’s brain patterns and ethical code. Even if it won’t allow his memories or full personality to emerge, every decision he has made, it’s a decision he would’ve made as a human.”

“So… In truth I am this Brian?” B.R.O.C.K asked, and for the first time his voice sounded human. “Even if I don’t remember his life or having been human… that is who I really am?”

And that was a hard question, to which Nick had no real answer. Because as much as he wanted it to be true, he had to admit that there were differences between B.R.O.C.K and Brian. Differences that could be explained, once the final files were open but… He didn’t have the right to decide to open those files. That was a decision only B.R.O.C.K could make.

“Not… not exactly,” Nick shook his head. “As I said, you’re not exactly like me. What Dr. Wright did, damaged a bit of Brian’s body and mind. You could, in theory, become Brian, but… I’m not sure if that would work. So I really can’t answer your question. Not with the data we have.”

“But you are **you** , right?” Crazy interrupted again, as he seemed to consider Nick’s words. “I mean, now… right now, you **are** that same Dr. Carter you’re telling us about. How did **that** happen?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Nick shrugged his self-loathing obvious in his voice. “I experimented on myself.”

 

* * *

 

After Brian closed his human eyes for the last time, Nick knew he didn’t have much time left.

**If** Dr. Wright had discovered that he was a traitor, the toad wouldn’t have kept the knowledge to himself. Which meant that sooner or later, guards would come to check the lab. He could try to escape, but with Alexander captured, Nick wasn’t sure of where to go. And if **he** was arrested, there was only one fate he could picture for himself.

His mother would revoke his rights as a person, and he would be forced to work for the Alliance, carefully monitored to insure that there was no more sabotages. They would put a personality inhibitor in his brain, make him obey all her orders and whims. He couldn’t allow that.

On the other hand, he couldn’t kill himself either. Aaron was still counting on him, and there was still all his work for the Alliance to be undone. What he needed was time, and he could only think of one way to get it.

The last generation of secret nanos he had been working in could be the solution. Of course, he would need a safety program too, which meant that, at least for 10 years or so, he would be completely under the Alliance’s control. **But** he wouldn’t be a super smart scientist. Only a self-replicating soldier that they would forget sooner or later.

After all, everyone knew that the nano process was irreversible.

Programming a virus to destroy **all** his research had been painful, even as he knew it was necessary. It was like torching the work of his lifetime. But at the same time, it felt like freedom. No one could ever repeat what he had done, no one would harm human kind as he had. As he uploaded it into the main computer, he also injected himself with the first batch of nanos that would start converting all his body into mechanical components.

Unlike the normal nano process, this wouldn’t stop his body from functioning. He had programmed them very carefully to leave his brain untouched. Of course, this meant it was even more painful than the other, since all his pain receptors were still connected and functioning. Even so, he figured it was his punishment. After all, how many innocent lives had been subjected to the same process because he hadn’t considered the Alliance’s usual methods?

The second batch of nanos, that he injected in his neck as soon as he finished a particular program that would infect every single nano ever created -via the Alliance’s own central computer- except for his own, Aaron’s and Brian’s, were programmed to create a small space into his own body to keep his most treasured possession safe: Aaron’s memories and genetic material. He still wasn’t ready to make his younger brother a nano, the process was still experimental -and how ironic it was that Nick himself had become now the final test of the process- but he was not going to abandon that goal. Aaron would be saved, no matter how long it would take.

The third batch was the hardest to create, as the pain was becoming unbearable and half his body wasn’t responding to his brain. It was the one to create the fake artificial brain, the one that would self-destruct as soon as it was safe for Nick’s personality to resurface. Following that, he injected the safety net program, through his ear so it would reach his brain before the rest of the nanos finished their job.

Finally, he managed to get the last batch, the one that would turn his memories and every one of his brain cells into computerized files and circuits, slowly as to preserve him completely. He almost failed, and it was through sheer strength of will that he managed to plunge the syringe into his own eye, the only organic part left that would insure that the nanos needed to save him would reach his brain before all the others.

Then, he knew no more.

It would be almost 600 years before he would wake up again, and realize that all his work hadn’t been in vain.

 

* * *

 

“My safety program took a while to decide that I was safe enough to try and wake my human conscience, and then, it kept flickering on and off, just to be completely sure,” Nick finished, closing his hand quickly as if to show that his hands were now working fine. “It was when the so called ‘anomalies’ started, and when I re-started my research to bring Aaron back. **How** did I end up in the same ship as B.R.O.C.K, and you Alexander, I have no idea. One would’ve thought that they would keep us separated from each other. Of course when B.R.O.C.K’s own safety program started to let his emotions out I was concerned… I still don’t know if what I did was enough to save Brian, or if I just managed to keep his human emotions safe.”

“What would you need to know?” B.R.O.C.K asked, frowning. The idea of not being a completely artificial being was still confusing for him. But he figured he could get used to it. But then there was the other part, that he was someone who had **had** a life, who had been Nick’s friend before… Was **he** really that person? His logic circuits were not made for such philosophical questions.

“I would have to open the file in your memory drive,” Nick explained. “But I am not sure if that would cause problems for you in the future. I’ll be honest, I’m scared. We could lose you completely, if I did something wrong. And I was working with no time, as the nanos act quite fast so I couldn’t even re-check the program. I’m sorry about that.”

“I… understand,” B.R.O.C.K nodded. “Although I also don’t know how we could end up in the same ship after what you told us. It would have made sense to send us to different ships.”

“That would be my fault,” A.J interrupted, raising his holographic hand. “But I have to say that I wasn’t **quite** expecting this particular result when I did it.”

“How did you do it?” Nick asked, sounding curious. B.R.O.C.K had to admit he also wanted that information. A.J was not a nano-unit, he was a computer program. Except that now he had admitted that he was Alexander James, a human being, and that made no sense.

“Using a trick you and Brian taught me, so yes, in a way you saved me even if you weren’t there,” A.J smiled, taking off his glasses to show his very humanoid eyes.

 

* * *

 

Tied to the operating table, Alexander James McLean knew he had little time left. His brain had already been connected to the Digitalizer, the huge machine that would take every single thought that he had ever had, his memories, and the very essence of his being and turn it into binary files. In a short time, perhaps six or seven hours, his whole being would be nothing but a very complex A.I. (Although he never imagined that an Artificial Intelligence made out of a real brain could be considered Artificial to being with, but he was not going to argue semantics. At least not now, in the position he was). Then, the same machine would not only create a special frame to keep all his **strategical** knowlege in place, but also erase all his memories and **morals**.

But he had a plan. Back in the REbel’s headquarters, Brian and Nick had once tried to explain to him what they were doing to try and save Aaron Carter. Among the things that they explained was the fact that the human mind was far more complex than any machine. Computer programs had loopholes, and for example, erasing a file from a hard drive was practically impossible.

As long as they were protected by a non-deleteable program. Sure, there was a chance to lose everything if the memory was formatted, but Nick had told him that there where ways to restore data even from formatted discks. Nothing was *really* lost, especially as the digitalized stored everything in one of the most ancient forms of the planet wide web.

So what he needed was a program. And while he wasn’t a genious like Nick, or a prized hacker like Brian, he had an excelent memory. He *had* seen Nick’s notes about his so called safety net program, and he knew a thing or two about computer programming. So he started to recite in his head the exact same program, willing those to be the very next thoughts that the computer digitalized, thus protecting everything that came afterwards.

And he smiled.

Because if Nick and Brian were half as smart as he hoped, that meant that the Alliance was not going to obtain his tactical knowledge… he was about to get access to the secret files of the goverment, and bring it down from within.

 

* * *

 

“And of course, it worked.” A.J smiled brightly, showing off his body, as it shimmered. “They never knew I had managed to save myself, and I don’t think anyone else has tried, even if as Brian originally explained it is something quite logical. And at first I wasn’t exactly sure of my own capabilities, but with access to the Military mainframe and my old skills as a haker, it was easy to pick the best ship to be installed on. The Millenium was big, and had self-sustainable capacities. I could theorically use it to save other rebels in space jails. Then I added that N.I.C.K and B.R.O.C.K should be added to the crew, because I thought that maybe I could find a way to restore them to their old personalities -I had no idea that it wouldn’t be needed- and, when I found out what they were going to do with Captain Richardson, I made sure that **that** experiment had to be made on board of the Millennium. I couldn’t save my old friend, but at least I could keep his… let’s call it, legacy, out of the Alliance’s hands.”

“What do you mean?” Crazy asked. A.J was pretty sure he was at the same time telling his clan mates that they shouldn’t talk, as he had almost a 40% of the hair movement translated. Well, maybe. He still needed to compare it to something.

“See, when I woke up as a bunch of ones and zeroes and the complete access to all of the Alliance Mainframe, I was a bit overwhelmed. I can’t fault Nick for programming a safety net. The change from biological to digital wasn’t exactly smooth. I had blackouts the first twenty years, and during that time the other Annoying Jerk is on charge. You’ve met him, the **real** program made by Dr. Wrigth II -since Nick dealt with the original so perfectly - and Dr. Carter-Spaulding using my knowledge as templates. With time, I grew used to the fact that, at least inside the Millennium, I have no limits, but back then? I thought that I was still limited by human’s senses. So I surrounded myself with those I knew I could trust. Or at least, the ones I **thought** I could trust.”

“It’s not as if I **knew** you were still you!” Nick protested, as Crazy lifted his hands again to interrupt.

“No, I meant, what do you meant about Captain Richardson’s legacy,” Crazy explained. “I understand that N.I.C.K was human back then, and so was B.R.O.C.K, Aaron and yourself, but you both said that Captain Kevin is not Captain Richardson, even when he has the same name. So… what do you meant?”

“Unfortunately for Captain Richardson, the punishment for militar traitors is a bit worse than the one for civil traitors,” A.J. Put on his glasses again. He was not happy to reveal this, so he decided in one nano second that the whole truth couldn’t be explained. At least not yet. “He was catalogued as a guinea pig, just as Brock, but for a different department. He was harvested for genetic material, and then stored in a secret cryogenic lab. In this case, they’re trying to make a perfect human soldier, capable of doing unexpected decitions, but at the same time, unequivocally loyal to the Alliance. The first clone got a very edited version of Captain Richardson’s memories before being put in the Millennium. The A.I is supposed to register all his actions and, if he does anything out of the official regulations, kill him, edit his brain waves, clone him again and repeat the process. He thinks he’s in charge of a transport ship, when in fact, he’s the experiment we’re conducting. Seeing how long a human can survive surrounded only by machines that will not sway him away from the Alliance, how living in deep space and never walking under real gravity affects him. Things like that. ”

He waited for a minute, watching as the aliens understood exactly what he was telling them.

“How many Captains has the Millennium had?” Crazy asked, wary

“Counting our current Captain Kevin?” A.J asked, sadly. “Ten. And it’s taken **everything** I got to stop the Annoying Jerk to up his count up to eleven.”


	12. Time to Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Kevin wakes up... but there's still a lot of mysteries surrounding him

Captain Kevin woke up feeling pain. That was unexpected, and, if he had to be honest to himself, annoying. The last thing he remembered was being shot by A.J -and the ship’s A.I had a lot to answer about that- and if *that* was right, he should not be feeling pain right now. He should have died, and then the cloning process would’ve started. **If** he had been cloned again, he wouldn’t be feeling pain all over his body.

So he hadn’t died completely. And if **that** had happened, the only explanation was that somehow, the Space Cow… no, the Clan, had managed to subdue his ship. And if **that** was true, then he was in huge problem. Because the only reason why he had managed to keep himself alive with six enemies on board, and two very defective nano-units was because A.J gave him some tactical advantage.

But without A.J’s support, he was the weakest in the ship. Which meant that, if the Clan wasn’t as honorable as they pretended to be, he was no longer the host of their group, he was a prisoner of war.

It was only then when he realized that he wasn’t wearing his uniform’s shirt, his chest was naked. Someone had also bandaged his wounds, which meant that he had been touched.

The thought of it made him nauseous, but he managed not to throw up. He had already shown way too much signs of weakness to them.

“A.J.? Are you still online?” he asked to the computer. Sure, the A.I had tried to kill him, but as he remembered the conversation before the shooting started, the computer had had the right according to the Directives. Maybe, he mused, he could just let the computer finish its job. **He** certainly had been compromised, if he had agreed to **help** the Clan, even if at the time it had seemed like the only viable possibility.

“I’m glad to hear your voice, Captain,” A.J answered, sounding somewhat relieved. Kevin shook his head. He had to stop projecting human emotions into his mechanical companions, even if A.J was standing next to him, and he could see a smile in his holographic face. The A.I was wearing a short sleeveless shirt and the Captain could see some tattoos on its arms. However, at the moment, he didn’t want to argue directives and protocol. “I’m very sorry about what happened earlier. It seems that some of my files were corrupted and I acted irrationally against you. I’ll let the others know you’re awake.”

“Wait!” Captain Kevin tried to yell, but his voice still sounded raspy. He had obviously been unconscious for a long time. “Who reprogrammed you? Who cured me? Who…?”

He couldn’t finish the question. What he wanted to ask was ‘Who touched me?’, but saying that out loud meant to admit that it had happened. As long as he didn’t know for sure, he could pretend it hadn’t happened. Because if he **had** been touched by the others, he had been contaminated.

And then he **had** to be terminated. There was no way around **that**. Dr. Wright had always been clear about the need to remain completely untouched because so far away from Earth, his immune system was compromised. Anything could create a new virus, a new mutation.

“I would tell you not to worry, but I know it would be useless. N.I.C.K and B.R.O.C.K used an old port to reboot me, before I could do more damage. Then, Mr. Sweet instructed unit 24 to operate on you.”

“Unit 24? I was only operated on by the nano unit?” Captain Kevin would never admit it, but he was feeling relief. A nano unit was sterile. Safe. He could continue his mission.

“Only her,” A.J assured him. “The mission protocols were kept all the time, even after my small… let’s call it outburst. Now, will you allow me to inform the others that you are awake?”

“Please do,” Captain Kevin smiled, feeling reasured. He still could make his mission work. “And A.J? My orders stand. The Internal Weapon system **must** be dissembled.”

“Already done, Captain,” A.J said, smiling.

* * *

Sweet was the first one to enter the Infirmary, to check on his patient. After hearing Nick, Brock and A.J’s stories, they all had agreed that it was better to keep the Captain on the dark about the truth. Sure, the Captain knew he was the tenth clone of the original Captain Richardson, but he didn’t know that the Captain had been a rebel, and much less his real reason for his existence and his mission. And A.J had made a great argument as to why that had to stay like that. The Captain was human, but his **mind** had been tampered from birth to believe not only that the Alliance was always right, but that his own existence was unimportant. That he was replaceable. If he learned that he was an experiment, there was no way to predict his reaction. And he needed to rest and regain his strength.

As a healer, Sweet agreed. As a living being who had lived his share of lies, he thought that the sooner the Captain knew the truth, the easier it would be to try and get him to break out of his birth programming. A.J -Because the digital being had been clear that he didn’t mind the nickname, and that, in fact, it had been **him** the one who put everyone’s names in their nano-unit acronyms- and Nick had the theory that it was possible to **ease** the captain out of the programming with enough time away from the Alliance. They only had to be careful so he wouldn’t notice.

Which meant, keeping him under the illusion that he was in charge. A.J would stop the three-monthly health checkups that in fact were only an excuse to gather data on the experiment and reinforce the Alliance’s programming, and the Clan’s only part on the plan was to keep the Captain distracted so he wouldn’t notice the lack of them.

Very theatrically, he put on gloves and walked to the bed where the Captain was resting. A.J had drilled them all on the importance of not touching the Captain without any protection. It wasn’t that the Captain could get sick, it was that **he** would think he would get sick.

Humans were too complicated for Sweet.

“I’m very glad to see you’re awake, Captain,” Sweet greeted, keeping his distance. The more medical part of him was dying to check every single wound in the Captain’s body, but he knew he had to wait. “You had us all very worried for a couple of hours.”

“Why did you save me?” The Captain asked, not even blinking. Again, Sweet wondered **how** they couldn’t notice that something was wrong in the ship. The Captain was far colder than the so called nano-units. “I’m not going to even pretend that you don’t know that I’m a clone. You could’ve left the ship grew my replacement. Nothing would’ve changed.”

Now Sweet was thankful that he had asked the others to wait outside. Such disregard for his own life was appalling. He wanted to slap the Captain, but 10 years pretending to be a mechanical unit had their advantages as far as acting skills went.

“We weren’t sure if the new Captain would’ve kept your orders, not after A.J’s strange outburst,” Sweet answered, his voice even. “Now, unfortunately, 24 is being recharged, so I can’t use her to check your wounds. Would you object to me touching you? With the sterile gloves, I mean?”

Sweet could see the Captain flinch a little, and he knew this was the first of many small steps they were going to have to make. Still, he breathed deeply. He just needed to be patient.

“All right,” The Captain nodded. “But keep the contact to a minimum. And destroy the gloves each time. And keep your hair away from me.”

Sweet nodded, willing his hair to tie itself into a ponytail, to lessen the chances of accidental contact. Then he started to check on the Captain, sure that the wounds would need redressing.

To his surprise, they were healing quickly. Now, instead of looking as if A.J had used him as a laser practice, he only looked as if he had survived a rather intense martial training with Spark’s mother.

He needed to talk to Nick and A.J, because although his knowledge in human’s physiognomy was limited, he was sure no one healed this quickly.

* * *

Captain Kevin knew something was wrong in the second Sweet put his hands on him. It wasn’t a vague feeling, it was a certainty. The other man had tried to hide it, but the Captain was pretty sure that the alien had been surprised by something in his wounds. He wasn’t sure why, he didn’t think he had any way to compare Sweet’s attitude, but he was pretty sure that the next words out of the alien’s mouth were going to be ‘This is unexpected’.

“You seem to be healing without any problem,” Sweet said, surprising the Captain. Maybe his instincts were wrong. Maybe he was just paranoid, because his own ship had attacked him. Or maybe, a traitorous part of his mind, it was something like the dream he had had before the spiders attacked. “At this rate, you will be out of the bed in no time. Although I would like it better if you took some care of your person.”

“I cover all my basic needs, and you know it,” the Captain answered, frowning. He was pretty sure that there had been an insult hidden under the alien’s words.

“Yes, of course,” Sweet agreed easily, making the Captain one more time believe that he was being insulted somehow. Except he couldn’t find the exact reason why he should feel offended. “But I’m talking about something more. It’s all about our peace treaty, Captain.”

“I will not discuss the treaty if Crazy is not present,” the Captain answered automatically, surprising even himself with the vehemence of his words. Then, as if to try to soften the situation, or at least make it more acceptable in his mind, he added “The original terms were negotiated with him, so it would be unfair to keep him away from any negotiation.”

“Well, I think you can have more visitors here if you want, we could invite them all here,” Sweet said, in the exact same measured tone that he had been using before. A tone that Captain Kevin was starting to identify as a “doctor” tone.

“A.J, tell our guests that they may come in the infirmary, if they want,” the Captain told the holograph, that was still hovering near. Part of him knew he should answer Sweet directly, but he wanted to keep his distance from the clan.

Even as the alien hadn’t touched him except through the sterile gloves, the Captain still felt somewhat dirty. It was a silly sensation, he knew it was useless to even consider the idea of not seeing the Clan almost every day, but at the moment, he needed that fake distance.

Crazy took a moment to arrive, but when he came in, Captain Kevin could tell he was trying to hide the fact that he was worried. How he knew that, he wasn’t sure, but it made him feel uneasy.

Behind Crazy, the rest of the Clan were watching the Captain with different degrees of worry in their faces. None of it was doing anything to calm the Captain’s nerves. It was almost as if they actually **cared** that he was still alive, which made absolutely no sense. There was no reason to believe he would be of any interest for the aliens.

“Captain, A.J told us that you wanted to see us all,” Crazy said, his braids also sneaking **away** from the Captain. It seemed that no one wanted to risk touching him.

That should made him feel better, but instead, made him wonder if they were hiding something else from him.

“Sweet wants to discuss something about our treaty,” the Captain answered. “I figured that since I **made** the original treaty with you, you should be present if we were going to change anything.”

“What do we need to discuss about the treaty, Sweet?” Crazy asked his clan mate, his braids barely moving towards him. The Captain realized that that was strange. Before, every time he saw them talking, their hairs practically braided together making strange patterns. Now, it seemed almost as a play put on just for the Captain’s benefit. Something more to ponder, as soon as he managed to get out of the infirmary.

“I need the Captain to take better care of himself,” Sweet explained, still looking at the Captain’s bandage. “Although his vital signs are strong, and he’s recuperating quickly, I am worried about his mental state.”

“My mental state is none of your concern,” the Captain protested.

* * *

As they had planned before the Captain woke up, Spazz was standing really near the door of the infirmary, not even listening to the conversation going on between the Prince, Sweet, and the Captain. What he was looking for was the Captain’s life spark again. He had only touched it briefly during the operation, and now, he had to find it again, without the human noticing it.

The fact that the Captain was a clone had shocked the Clan, but not as much as the knowledge that the Captain thought of himself as disposable. **That** had been the real shock. Every living being they had encountered, even the strange space spiders they had just faced, clung to life with ferocity. Life was sacred, and there was nothing more important than to live it to its full extent. That the Captain was so willing to throw it all aside was almost heresy.

A.J assured them it was not a human trait, but rather, something caused by the brainwashing that the Captain had been subjected to since his creation -and, to be even more precise, since the first time he had been cloned. Ten generations of controlled behavior were behind that selfless attitude, and they all agreed that, if they were going to help Nick, Aaron, A.J and Brock to get away from the Alliance and rejoin the Rebellion, the first order of business was to break that brain washing.

Make Captain Kevin realize that, regardless of his biological and genetic origins, he **was** an individual, and as such, he could make his own decisions. Of course, that was not going to happen overnight, so they had to find the way to work from within.

After hearing Spazz explanation about all the sparks he kept feeling around the ship, and how strong both Nick’s and Brock’s sparks were -especially Nick’s after he had managed to finish his nano conversion to become just like Aaron- Crazy had developed his plan.

The first step was to try and see exactly how strong Captain Kevin’s life spark was now that he wasn’t dying. Spazz hoped that this time, with the Captain conscious and distracted, it would be different. That he wouldn’t feel the curious touch of Spazz’s soul.

That he wouldn’t need to lower his own energy, so he wouldn’t feel the **other** sparks. Because, as shameful as it was to admit it, he was afraid of them, since he couldn’t tell where they came from.

Captain Kevin’s spark was strong enough now, but there still was the deep feeling of helplessness around. A self hatred so strong, that almost made Spazz want to break the contact. There was weariness, and mistrust. The Captain didn’t understand why they were worried about him. But the hate… that was strong, and, for some reason, it also felt alien to the Captain. As if it was part of him, but at the same time, came from outside his own mind.

Almost as a whisper, in the ether of the mind space.

/You do not deserve to be alive/

* * *

“You know I’m a clone.” Captain Kevin didn’t question that. He had never mentioned it before, as he felt that unnecessary knowledge for the Clan, but after all that had happened, after A.J had temporary rebelled -and he **needed** to make sure that it never happened again- and 24 had operated in him, he figured that if they hadn’t noticed, it was better to make them aware. That way, they wouldn’t insist on wasting resources on saving him again or in trying to make him ‘take better care of himself’. “That means A.J is perfectly capable of replacing me. He has done so before.”

“So, are you exactly the same as the previous Captain Kevin of this ship?” Crazy asked. It was not a new question; the Captain knew it from his -admittedly limited- knowledge in cloning ethic. It was practically the very first question one had to answer before cloning someone.

“Yes,” the Captain answered, quite sure of himself. “I was cloned **after** his body’s death, and I have all his memories. I’m exactly the same as he was, and I have done everything **he** would’ve done.”

“That is not exactly true, Captain,” A.J interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose as if his glasses bothered him. Which was silly, as he was only a hologram. “Captain Kevin IX was not fond of N.I.C.K’s droids and would command him to destroy and recycle them as they were needed.”

“That’s not true,” the Captain frowned. He didn’t understand why A.J was contradicting him. He didn’t remember **everything** his previous incarnations had done, but he was sure he had the gist of them. They were the same as him.

“I’m afraid it is, Captain,” N.I.C.K interjected. “I could show you the records. Before him, Captain Kevin VIII ordered us to have at all time a full crew of nanos, against the orders of Captain Kevin VII, who only wanted the most basic crew around.”

Captain Kevin stayed silent, confused. N.I.C.K and A.J couldn’t lie, and even if it was possible due to their programming, they had no reason to. So he was once again forced to reconsider his position. Was he really that different now that he had been cloned ten times? He had always been confident in the knowledge that he was just as the original Captain Richardson, but now, knowing that he wasn’t, half of his argument fell down.

Could he really guarantee that his treaty would be respected by his successor?

“We believe that every living being is an individual,” Crazy explained, carefully. “You make your choices based in your personal experience. We don’t know exactly **how** you can be sure that the previous Captains were just like you, but we know that they didn’t live with us. They didn’t make a peace treaty or fought at our side. That alone makes you different in our eyes.”

“That sounds like a lot of metaphysical non sense,” the Captain answered, scoffing. Even when it would make some sense given that none of his predecessors had had to deal with the same things he had, such as the Clan on board of the ship and the constant anomalies in the nano units on board, it only explained **his** differences, not the ones of the clones before him. While he understood the basic idea behind nurture vs. Nature, there should be no difference between **his** nature, and the other clone’s nature, and there had been no nurturing for any of them. It made no sense. “Despite the minute differences between myself and those who came before me, we’re still in essence, the same person.”

“But you still can’t guarantee a future Captain would respect our treaty,” Crunk interjected, just as Crazy’s braids raised themselves and practically **hissed** at him. The Captain didn’t need to be fluent in the hair language of the aliens to know that Crunk was not supposed to interrupt.

“But A.J can,” the Captain insisted. He wasn’t sure why he wanted them to understand that there was no need to worry about him, but he was certain it was important. He wasn’t used to be seen as someone irreplaceable. His survival had never been a priority, and he **needed** them to see that. “I don’t want anyone to spend useful resources of the Millennium just to try and salvage something that can be easily replaced.”

The Captain tried not to think about the way in which everyone flinched when he self identified as a thing.

“What about the resources that are used in cloning?” Crazy asked, and the Captain realized that he was immersed in some strange negotiation in which the final prize was apparently his own survival. He just couldn’t understand **why** the aliens were so interested in it. “What is more wasteful? Saving your life or cloning you again?”

“A.J?” The Captain asked, sure that the computer would understand the meaning behind the question. He didn’t know the answer, had never been interested in the actual cloning process. The only thing he needed to know was that it worked, and that the Millennium would never end up drifting without a Captain.

“There are some uncertain factors, sir,” the hologram said, as he rolled his eyes in the way that the Captain had learned long ago meant that he was reviewing all the variables and files to give him the answer he looked for. “However, in a general sense, I can tell that in our current situation it would take 18.84% more resources to bring up a new clone that it would take you to bring you back to health from an almost mortal situation.”

The Captain nodded. There was something about those numbers that he didn’t quite trust, but he wasn’t going to question A.J just yet. Of course, there were many things he needed to check about the computer, the ship and all that had happened since the attack of the alien spiders, but he was not going to argue anything as long as he was in the infirmary and under the Clan’s watch.

“Very well,” he said, sighing. “A.J, insert a new order. Anyone who falls in battle and survives must be taken to the infirmary immediately, and all possible measures to insure his survival will be taken. That includes me, and, until we get back to Alliance’s space, we will try and avoid cloning me again.”

“As you command, Captain,” A.J said, and the Captain could’ve sworn that there was a hint of triumph in the hologram’s voice.

* * *

By the time Sweet had convinced the Captain that “taking care of oneself” was a little more than just “keeping one self alive”, B.R.O.C.K had reviewed his internal files 45667.98 times. It was at the same time a terrible waste of energy, and the only way he had to know himself. Because after all he had learned in the past seven hours, he was confused.

He didn’t remember anything of what Nick had said. Nick, and not N.I.C.K because after all, the pauses to signify the binary name were useless. Nick wasn’t a Nano Intelligent unit. He was a Nicholas. A human being that had been turned nano organic. But of course, B.R.O.C.K wouldn’t remember it since all the memories of the human that had been used as a base for him were locked away.

And yes, he could see the closed file perfectly. A file that only Nick could open, and that made B.R.O.C.K angry. Anger, an emotion, and now he knew that he **could** feel emotions. It was not just an anomaly of his system, or a virus he had picked up somewhere. They were real. He could feel.

It would take him some time to get used to that.

He only devoted 78% of his brain capacity to worry and analyze the situation, while the remaining 32% kept him functioning normally. Everyone except Nick himself would think that he was completely adjusted to the situation. Nick would know it wasn’t true, because now B.R.O.C.K understood why the safety net existed. Without the possibility to divert his own thoughts, he would’ve probably crashed upon the revelation of his own humanity.

Besides the strange file, that now was first and foremost in his list of worries, he couldn’t find anything unusual in his system. His original reasoning had been that, if he was truly a mechanical being, there had to be a program, a routine, something that explained his ability to mimick human emotion. However, there wasn’t one. **He** could feel, **he** was an individual, and somehow, he was managing to accept that… except that he didn’t remember being human.

It made him wonder, what would happen if he asked Nick to open that file. Would he still be as he was? Or was Brian’s personality different and thus, B.R.O.C.K would cease to be? Remembering all the differences between the other Captains didn’t help his unease.

And there was still so much to consider and do before he could have a breakdown over his existence.

First order in business was to prepare and fix the real Captain’s quarters. It made B.R.O.C.K happy -and he was trying to catalogue all his new found emotions carefully- to think that those old quarters, not too far from the ones he had prepared for the Clan, would be used again.

The Captain’s quarters were bigger than the Clan’s quarters, and B.R.O.C.K wondered if he would see the Captain actually use all that space, or if he would ask him to make the place smaller. The bed, for example, was what in old Earth times had been called a King Size, appropriate for the Captain and his chosen partner, but since the Captain had no one -and the probabilities of the Captain finding a partner in their current situation was of a mere 5%, and even less if B.R.O.C.K added the Captain’s phobia to be touched- B.R.O.C.K was almost sure he would ask for it to be removed and changed for an individual one. And even that one would be bigger than the cot he currently used. There was a small table and two chairs, for when the Captain wished to eat with his partner or have private meetings away from the mess hall, and space for a small recreation area. The closet was a walk in closet, although B.R.O.C.K couldn’t understand why, as even when the Millennium had been a colony ship, the Captain didn’t had used that many clothes. It connected to a bathroom that, in an apparent show of excess, included a bathtub.

Captain Kevin would surely hate that. He would call it a ‘disgusting waste of resources’ and insist on it to be taken apart and that the materials had to be used in something more useful for the ship. B.R.O.C.K wondered if the aliens would convince him otherwise. According to his files, the bathtub in the Clan’s quarters was used with frequency, same as the shower.

As he finished reviewing the Captain’s quarters, he realized they needed other quarters too. Now that Nick was no longer mostly mechanical, he would need some personal space. B.R.O.C.K didn’t even know **if** Nick still needed an energy port, or if he needed food and rest like a human being now. And there was A.A.R.O.N…

According to Nick, A.A.R.O.N hadn’t changed at all now that he remembered he was Aaron Carter, but A.A.R.O.N had always slept in an energy port before… until the Clan arrived, and he could eat and sleep like them.

Once more, he hit a non solvable problem. With the practice earned with the years, he simply put it away, on a very special bin created exactly with that purpose, and moved on to a different subject. Now he realized that that type of actions, the ability to stop thinking about a problem, **had** to come from his human base. A computer program, like the A.I that A.J kept prisoner, would keep trying to solve the situation and even break itself in the process.

B.R.O.C.K had never had a blue screen in his existence. That was yet another thing that made him more human than machine, and the list kept growing.

He realized that he needed to distract himself. Find something that wouldn’t break either parameter, that could be done by a human and a machine equally, so he could have more time to get used to the idea of not being a computer. Reviewing his files for the 45679th time, B.R.O.C.K took notice of the fact that, while he had the whole ship mapped, he had never been into every room of it. There were rooms, like the one A.J protected, where he had no authorization to enter, and getting in there would be difficult but not impossible. But most of them were simply there, forgotten in time.

And B.R.O.C.K was curious. Another human trait, but this time he didn’t chalk it to an anomaly. It was part of his personality, and if he was going to figure out **what** he was, he needed to accept those things.

Convinced, he left the Captain’s quarters and started walking down the aisle to the service elevators. It was time to visit those old empty quarters.

* * *

“My Prince? I’d like to request an audience,” Sweet said, walking towards Crazy, Crunk and Spark. They were cleaning their bulls, that had took a lot of damage during the battle, while Spazz and Scoop scouted the route home and made sure that no other hostile aliens were near.

“Sweet, you know you don’t need to ask,” Crazy shook his head. He stood up and smiled at him, his braids rising up and down, questioning if he wanted to have privacy or if he wanted to talk in front of their friends.

Sweet wasn’t exactly sure of the answer, and he let his hair fall down in response. It was a complex situation, since he was sure he couldn’t discuss it with the Captain, and while usually he would let his patients decide what to do with the information he could give them about their health, he wasn’t sure that the Captain would understand. **He** didn’t understand, and while he figured that A.J might have an answer, Sweet wasn’t sure if the holograph/man would actually explain what was going on.

He puffed his hair a little. While he didn’t mind if Spark and Crunk heard what he had to say, he was sure he didn’t want A.J listening in. They needed to go outside.

Crazy nodded and with a single movement of his neck, he motioned Crunk to let Sweet use his bull, before activating his helmet. Sweet let himself feel some relief. He hadn’t been outside in space since going into the Millenium, and while going outside in a planet had been a great relief, he had also waited too long to feel the vastness of the universe around his own body. But he didn’t let himself dwell too much on it, as there was something far more pressing to worry about.

“The Captain is not healing as I expected,” Sweet said, once he was sure he was sure that they were out of A.J’s listening range.

“What do you mean? He looks better now, or is he bleeding internally?” Crazy asked. Thanks to the helmets, Sweet couldn’t see his face, but he figured he was frowning.

“No, my Prince,” Sweet answered, and Crazy playfully swatted at him, a friendly reminder that he wasn’t to use his title. Not that Sweet would remember. “He’s healing *too* fast. The damage he suffered would’ve put a human in grave danger for at least three months or so. Instead, I will be able to let him out to sleep in his own quarters in a week, and I think he’ll not have any scars.”

“Humans don’t heal that fast?” Crazy sounded as confused as Sweet felt.

“ **We** don’t usually heal that fast without a healer and a shaman’s help,” Sweet pointed out. “You know this, Crazy. The same energy that lets you feel all the Clan that’s close to you, lets me be a better healer and use my own energy to heal small wounds, and Spazz have a deeper connection to our essence. Without that, if we only use our bodies and not our souls, it takes longer. Like Spark’s ribs, since he’s too stubborn to accept that no matter what the humans did to him, he’s still one of us.”

“But even so, the Captain said that if we had used human machines, Spark’s ribs would’ve healed instantly.”

“Yes, but **I** didn’t use those machines while operating the Captain. I couldn’t, since A.J was out of commission, and I **don’t** know how to use most of them. Nick was busy repairing Brock, so all I had was my knowledge, and, although I’m not sure of it, Spazz’s help.”

Crazy stayed silent for a long time, as if he was trying to analyze everything. In that moment, Spazz flew towards them in his bull, that looked a little worse for wear than all the others. Not a suprise, since Spazz always flew to the center of all conflicts.

“What’s wrong?” Spazz asked, as soon as he was within earshot.

“Tell Sweet what you told me earlier,” Crazy said. It was the first time that Sweet had heard his prince being so serious. There was something wrong. And as Spazz started to explain what he had done during the operation, Sweet frowned. It wasn’t possible that the Prince was angry about Spazz helping the Captain, because they all needed him alive. But the idea that there were **other** sparks around the ship was something to be worried about.

Sweet had to bit back a groan, because it made no sense. A.J would surely notice if there were other living beings on board of the ship, and if he wasn’t telling the Clan about it, it meant that he was keeping even more secrets from them.

After the last two weeks, Sweet had hoped that both Nick and A.J understood that they needed to stop keeping secrets, especially when they were about the ship and people who lived in it. They had already had a very close scare with the Captain, they didn’t need a sudden attack from inside their quarters just because A.J neglected to mention that there were at least other four or five people living with them.

And there was another thing that worried him. While it was true that Spazz could detect, feel and understand any life spark that he could reach, there had been always a certain distance when he talked about human sparks. It wasn’t that he couldn’t communicate with them, it was that there was a certain degree of animosity from them, according to Spazz. It was, as far as the Shaman said, like trying to talk with someone who was only yelling and puffing his hair at you without pausing to listen.

Of course, after all they had learned from humans and their bizarre genetic practices, it could be a side effect. They had only met soldiers, cloned soldiers at that, until meeting Captain Kevin.

But the fact that the very essence of the Captain was afraid was difficult to understand. Sweet had lived with the human longer than any of the others, and “fear” was the least possible word to describe him. In fact, Sweet could even say that the Captain was a brave person, after all, he had gone against everything he believed in, against the **programming** that they had put in his very genes, and tried to understand the Clan instead of just killing them. Those weren’t the actions of a man whose very soul was afraid.

“I think we need to know exactly what the ‘experiment’ is about,” Sweet finally said, trying to consider all the facts they had so far. “I don’t think it’s just about seeing how long a human being can survive without human contact. While that sounds like something the humans would do, it seems like they would’ve gotten their answer when the first clone died.”

“Could he be like Aaron or Brock?” Crazy asked. Sweet noticed that Scoop was still keeping their distance from them, and he realized that it was so A.J wouldn’t suspect that they were discussing him. They had also learned how to keep secrets from the apparently all knowing computerized human. “One of Nick’s experiments that went awry?”

“I don’t think so,” Spazz shook his head. “His experiments were about making living machines, and the Captain doesn’t have any mechanical part. And I got the impression that Nick wants to make amends for all he did. He wouldn’t keep one of his past mistakes secret after all he told us.”

“And if the experiment is still going after the Captain was cloned 10 times, that means that A.J must know what it is about,” Crazy finished. “It makes sense, but how can we convince him to tell us about it?”

“What if it’s not A.J the one who is over viewing the experiment?” Sweet said, as the possibility surfaced in his mind. It made him feel stupid, just as he had felt when he realized that A.J had probably helped him a lot in his espionage mission without Sweet noticing the differences between the digitalized human and the ship’s real A.I. “What if it’s the other? **How** are we going to get the information from him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I know, I know... this is coming really slow. But I swear, I am still working on it. It's just that the guys are not cooperating as smoothly as they should.


End file.
